Existence
by mkkarnir
Summary: The next trials await at the start of high school. Sakura is in the midst of leaving her childhood behind, and finds herself wondering if her world will ever be the same now that she is due to leave behind her friends and memories of the last seven years.
1. The Dream

**Chapter 1 – The Minstrel  


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_1-1: The Dream_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream, except this wasn't like any dream she had had before. Those dreams of before had held images of places, of people, and of things to come. This darkened vision held absolutely nothing for her to behold, leaving her feeling isolated and alone. For that reason alone, this new dream frightened her.

The view before her changed slightly, and out of nowhere there appeared an archway. It felt like she should have recognized it, as though it felt familiar to her, almost close to her. Close more so in the physical sense than in the spiritual, and yet both remained true. As her mind processed this new visage, she realized that it was the Shinto archway that led into the Tsukimine Shrine, a place she often visited. It was also the location that one of her dreams from before had used.

It was at this moment that she came into a full lucidity within her dream, and she knew that she was seeing a potential future.

A faint pulse of light shot through the darkness from behind her, stealing away her attention. Instinctively, she spun about to face that pulse, and so found herself looking at a familiar pink book floating there in midair before her. She reached out carefully to pull it back to her, wishing to claim her book back from whatever force had taken control of it. Her arm moving ever so slowly forward, she was just inches from the book when she swiftly snatched out at it. And yet, rather of finding the physical contact of the leather-bound covers that she had expected, she instead stumbled forward awkwardly as her hand passed right through the book, followed by her entire self as she attempted to correct her balance.

Catching herself from falling over, she spun back about to keep the book within eyesight. She noted that its front cover was somehow facing her again, but then noted that it was also no longer her book. It was glowing softly with a yellow light, and the cover had exchanged its normal pink for a familiar reddish hue. She stepped closer, examining the front cover more carefully, and noticed that it had a gold-worked symbol of a winged beast gilded atop of the book's leather bindings. A thought then came to her that this symbol was meant to represent Kerberos, the Guardian Beast of the Seal. She stepped back slightly in confusion, now very much unsure of what was going on.

The book continued to glow with its soft, radiant light, and meanwhile began to spin around slowly to reveal the figure of the winged moon worked onto the back cover. The book's original magic circle was also inscribed above that moon, with the sun and offset moon matching perfectly to the old powers that she was so familiar with. Even the engraved metal plate set below the winged moon had changed to take on its old English name. Though, in the end, none of these facts really helped to reveal why her book had so mysteriously returned to its original form as the Book of the Clow.

She stood there with a cautious sense of curiosity as the book continued to glow and hover, still turning about slowly of its own volition. As the front cover once again came around to face her, it slowed its pace, then eventually discontinued its pace altogether. When the book was done displaying itself, the soft light that had been emanating from it seemed to simply recede away into the book, absorbed by it even. Just like that, it had once again become the pink, star-covered book that she was so familiar with. Out of reflex, she attempted to once again grab the book away from where it still floated, yet her hand still refused to touch it. It easily passed its way through the cover and pages., just like it had before.

Footsteps began to sound out, the tapping of feet growing louder and closer for each moment that they approached. She spun her head in multiple directions, attempting to spy out against the darkness whoever or whatever it was that was closing in on her, though she could only sight the book and the shrine's archway as her companions. Her worry of being discovered with a magical, floating book overtook the awareness of a lack of spectators, causing her to embrace the illusionary object in order to shield it from unseen eyes. As the steps continued their approach, she was more easily able to discern their location, until she noticed them coming from behind the shrine's archway. She stepped towards the archway, passing her way right through the book – an act that made her feel just a little more than slightly disconcerted – to face the approaching figure.

As the figure made itself visible against the darkness of her world, the image of the cherry tree that resided within the real shrine appeared from behind both that figure and the archway that it had left behind. She squinted her eyes to try to see further ahead in the dark, although it then occurred to her that she was able to see just fine. Despite that everything around her was pitch black, not a single detail of the figure had been shadowed away from view.

It was a robed figure, the person who neared her. They were perhaps a head-and-a-half taller than her, and they seemed to walk with an air of grace that would come with a long and experienced life. Her eyes widened as she noticed the half-symbols of the sun and moon weaved into the front of the man's overcoat, and she immediately knew who it was.

Clow Reed made his way slowly, quietly, across the black expanse that stretched between the archway and herself, until he stood only a few meters away from her. Without a word, he raised a hand out toward her, palm up, and with a beckoning motion pulled the illusionary book out from behind her and closer to himself. As it hovered to a stop just before him, it began to spin once again, though this time it spun itself almost wildly out of control, much to the point that it was soon just a blurred representation of a cylindrical object.

The questions in her mind continued to increase, but none of them were answered when he finally spoke.

"_The stars exist as a balance to themselves, with the sun and moon as guardians of the land. Unite with the sun and the moon, for only then will the ancient skies overcome an ancient adversary._"

She frowned in confusion at his words, and opened her mouth to inquire about them. Yet when she spoke, not a single sound came away from her lips. She worked over her vocal cords with an increasing need to speak, and even screamed with the effort of making them sound out, but in the end stared helplessly at the ground, if it could be called that, when her voice had all but refused to come forth. She looked up in concern to Clow Reed as he stood before her, hoping to reach out and beckon him to say more, but she stopped herself short of her quest only to pull away from him with both awe and apprehension.

His body was visibly fluctuating, shifting in and out of place as multiple images of his form began to flicker into existence. At the same time, the once again stationary book floating before the both of them began to shimmer and shift in appearance as well. It was as though her field of vision was being distorted, making her see double, then triple, and then double and triple again. As the fluctuations continued, the split images continued to increase in distance, bouncing and flickering from side to side until they eventually stabilized themselves as three separate entities each.

She first examined the new objects that floated on each side her now-stilled book, but could not see through the darkness surrounding them to even try and identify them. She stepped forward towards the mystery image on the left to attempt a closer look, and yet the darkness did not recede. If anything, the darkness only seemed to _thicken_, condensing itself into a visible puff of black, misty clouds. She waved her hand in front of that image, trying to waft away the cloud of darkness, yet her efforts proved to be in vain. She looked up at the three images of Clow Reed in wanting for answers, confusion masking her every feature.

Except that there were now only two images of Clow Reed left to her company, and they glanced not at her but at something beyond her, objects that was on both sides of her. Alarmed, she spun around to glance behind, looking in both directions as she went, but saw no one and no thing. All that existed was the darkness stretching off before and all around her, her precious book, the two blackened objects that had spawned from that book, the Tsukimine Shrine, and the two images of Clow Reed.

She turned back to face those images, and found that the two Clows were speaking, though no words came away from their mouths. They were also not attempting to speak directly to her, but were instead addressing whatever had gained their collective attention, such beings or objects that were supposedly beside her. Again she looked to her sides, although she knew that there wouldn't be anything there this time either. She did take note, however, that the three ghost-like books from before – somehow, it just suddenly made sense that the two other objects were also books – had disappeared from view.

After a few seconds of voiceless words, the two Clows bowed their heads, that ever-present smile of confidence on their faces, and together they quickly faded away until only the darkness and the shrine remained. Soon replacing the two Clow Reeds, however, were glowing orbs of energy that sparkled their way into existence, as if to represent the spiritual essences of those two whom had just recently departed. She then also noticed something else.

At the same time as those two essences were continuing to form, the images of the shrine before her had also begun to fade. In the place of those images appeared four, darkened orbs, the direct opposites in color of what was being left in the place of the two Clow Reeds. Where the one set was of the purest white and was glowing with a soft, rainbow light, the four orbs from the shrine were practically pitch black. They almost seemed to be absorbing that very same rainbow light.

She thought to perhaps reach out for one of the glowing essences, to lay claim to it and inspect its purpose. But before she could even move a finger, let alone her arm, the two glowing spirits had both shot straight up and were soon racing each other far into the blackened sky above her. They continued their race farther and farther out of her reach, until they were just minute specks of light in the darkness. Two little stars in the night sky.

She looked back at the four darker orbs that had appeared in place of the Tsukimine Shrine, wondering if they would elect to give chase. Instead, they had rather begun to chase each other, following behind one another within a circular, wheel-like motion. Within the center of that wheel began to form a sort of vortex, a whirlpool of emptiness which had begun to draw upon the tangible darkness of the four orbs. Somehow, it seemed to be sucking in all of the non-existent light around her. She soon discovered the source of that light, when a little white bird fluttered its way into the scene, landing right in front of the vortex that those four orbs had created.

She attempted to cry out to the bird, wishing to scare it away before it could be harmed by whatever darkness was being formed from that swirling mist, but her voice still refused to respond to her commands. She tried to rush after it, to let it see her and be scared off by the approach of a figure ten times its size, but found that she no longer had control over her bodily functions. And yet the bird turned to look at her, staring into her eyes as though it had still heard her plea for it to escape. Gazing into and through its black, beady eyes, she believed that it had understood her. However, to her dismay, it just remained in place, choosing instead to turn back and stare at the black vortex nearby.

A fierce and almighty windstorm picked up all around her as the vortex began to pull all existing matter into itself, absorbing into its horizon literally anything that it could find. She fought the pull as best she could, what with the paralysis her body had taken to, but with nothing for her to take a hold of, she was losing ground fast. She squinted her eyes against the wind and watched helplessly as the little bird lost its control of its abilities of flight, spinning its way unwillingly into the dark mist and disappearing completely from view soon thereafter. The feelings of remorse at her loss were quickly washed away, however, as she too was suddenly lifted off of her feet to be pulled fast into the spinning emptiness.

Time itself seemed to slow to a crawl, despite the raging speed with which she approached. And as the vortex neared, a voice overcame her. Clow Reed's voice. It filled her ears, her mind, and indeed the very air around her.

"_When the Seal on them is broken, a catastrophe will befall this world._"

Her consciousness faded back into a deep and undisturbed sleep just before the horrors of the darkness could surround and consume her.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	2. Midnight Stroll

_1-2: Midnight Stroll_

The stars were sparkling brilliantly up in the cloudless night sky, making the waxing half-moon pale by comparison. Maybe it had something to do with the alignment of their related powers, though she couldn't say for sure. She was not the prime source of information on magical powers, nor did she claim to be. She only knew that which she observed.

She walked down the street as her eye scanned the night scenery around her, which was eerily quiet considering her purpose here. To her left, the slanted guard wall rose up above her about five or six meters. The homes beyond the man-made ridge were guarded by a thick lining of trees, their branches casting thin shadows within the light of the moon. To the right flowed an endless sea of buildings and business towers, as her view passed from the darkened lower residential area in through the commercial area and off towards the sparkling tower lights of the business sectors of town.

She started walking forward slowly, seeing before her the distant Shinto archway of the Tsukimine Shrine. It was something of a special place for her, filled with memories of all kinds. She often visited there during festive occasions, the last one she could recall being Valentine's Day just under two months ago. She had visited there with her friends, as they had all wished to take advantage of what would be their last few months attending the same school.

Her heart suddenly trembled at the thought of losing touch with all of her friends, especially that particular one. Even though they would never truly be removed from each other, the thought of not being able to see them all on a daily basis was still an unexplored scenario for her. Life had been so simplistic up until now that she had remained ever so blissfully unaware of the sudden changes that were now awaiting her. They all had been, really. She found herself wishing that school academics did not have to be so selective in their student applications.

A slight breeze began to pick up, which somehow reminded her of that first discovery about her dear friend, something that had changed both of their lives in a very large way. At the time, it had not occurred to her that such a change would bring about such major changes within themselves as well. It was only later, as their circle of friends had slowly increased, that all of their personal views of each other had begun to differ. As far as she knew, she herself was the only one who had maintained a consistent view of any personal desire.

The breeze turned into a decent wind, prompting her to turn skyward, her eye watching through the gray-washed video camera as a large bird swept into view over the treetops that guarded the ridge of the park. The term large, however, was mostly an understatement, as this white-feathered, long-necked crane dwarfed even a modern-day airliner. As it passed directly overhead, its gigantic wings flapping powerful gusts of wind down upon her, it opened its beak in a loud caw. A long, warbling cry to issue forth a warning to something following behind it.

She tilted her view back towards the treetops, and pushed the zoom in on the camera as a smaller flying object broke the green and black horizon, its comparatively diminutive form trailing after the oversized crane. This one was almost like a holy angel, flying through the air as it was with a graceful yet fierce determination. It charged through the skies under wings that bared a pinkish hue, seeking after the enormous flying animal with that same fierce determination. In its hand it held its symbol of the heavens, a pink wand with a yellow star set into a small circle at the head, a pair of diminutive wings decorating the top.

The crane-like bird angled its long neck back towards its pursuer, releasing a powerful breath of wind as it did so. The tornado its gaping maw created swept across the empty sky, catching the flying angel off guard and throwing it much closer to the stars than it had originally intended to be.

"Sakura!" she cried out in alarm, watching fearfully through her camera's lens as the angelic figure far above her attempted to regain control of its flight abilities, but it was a hopeless struggle against currents of wind that had changed unexpectedly and violently. Even with all the holy power at its disposal, it seemed as though its wings would no longer hold it on high, and it began to tumble helplessly towards the earth.

Once again the horizon broke as two more figures, one silver, the other orange, flashed into view from the treetops above her. The latter of the two immediately shot forth at an amazing speed towards the falling angel, diving beneath its downward trajectory. It caught the angel safely on its back, and with a slightly visible effort raised itself up back beside its companion.

As the commotion stilled, and as her camera was able to settle upon the flying images, she recorded a second angel. This male-like figure was handsome and majestic, whereas its slightly shorter female companion was beautiful and dignified. His clothing was comprised mostly of long, flowing, silver and blue robes, upon which was placed a blue, circular crystal centered upon its chest. His wardrobe blended in almost perfectly with his body-length and equally flowing silver hair, as well as his majestic silver wings.

The third form that flew with them was, by any description, a lion. One with wings that hinted at a golden hue, and an intricately designed iron chest plate upon which was centered a pure red opal. As the winged beast glanced around at its environment, as well as glancing back to see if it's charge was unharmed, her camera picked up another red opal mounted on the top of the beast's head armor.

The angel riding atop of the grand, winged lion nodded its appreciation to that lion's concern, then with a careful balance stood upright upon its back. It drew back into a slight crouch, and with a powerful surge jumped from the creature's back and into the vast expanse of air beyond. Her heart leapt to her throat as the angel began to free-fall through the air towards the ground nearby, but she immediately and forcibly calmed herself. She knew better than to fear for her friend's safety at such a low altitude. All the same, she always seemed to panic whenever her angel did something that any normal human would have injured themselves from.

The angel landed gracefully upon the ground just meters in front of her, a pair of miniature white wings soon after vanishing from her boots in a flare of rainbow light. This was the first time tonight that she had been able to take a close-up shot of her friend in action, in this costume, and she wasted no time in readjusting the zoom.

The wings worn on the back, while from afar appearing to be that of an angel's, were visibly decorative up close, a fact that she would have to remedy in a future attempt. She pulled the zoom back out slowly for dramatic effect, revealing a long white, full-length dress, a gown suitable for an angel. A front-side v-cut halfway down the skirting revealed white, thigh-length boots with gold, blue-lined ribbons tying the laces in place. The rest of the dress held a simplistic grace by design, its bodice line rising up to just under the arms, and held in place by an inverted neckline that wrapped itself around the girl's neck. A single yellow, five-point star decorated the inverted collar, hanging just below the base of the neck.

"Sakura, are you all right!?" she asked her friend insistently, pausing the recording process to lower the camera and examine her friend with both eyes. She could visibly see that Sakura was far from injured, just as she had expected. That didn't stop her from wanting to be concerned, though.

Sakura took a quick glance at her friend, then swung her eyes back towards the sky to keep tabs on her two companions and the rogue bird that were all starting to circle back towards them, "I'm fine, Tomoyo, just a little shaken. But how am I supposed to chase after something that can fly?"

As she considered her options, they both watched as the two winged forms above them began to move in on the third, crane-like bird, intercepting it in a pincer maneuver as it rushed its way back towards its would-be challenger. Engaging from behind it, the lion reared back its head, and from its mouth a fountain of flame began to build. Snapping its head back at the bird, the flames spewed forth like a flamethrower, though they missed the bird's underside by a wide margin. It was still enough to divert the bird's original course, causing it to ascend back into the air before it could complete its dive. It passed over the two spectators on the ground as it went, sending heavy gusts of wind against them from the beating of its wings.

The silver-winged angel that awaited ahead of the crane spun around as the giant bird shot past him, his right arm raised palm forward towards the fleeing animal. From his open hand, a transparent orb of light began to form, and within it a shard of blue crystal appeared. His left fist began to glow with a similar light, and as it opened up, it too carried a shard of crystal. He cocked his right arm back a bit, holding that position for barely a moment.

With a soft cry of effort, the angel shot its right arm forward to release a flurry of crystalline shards into the air, firing them as one would a machine gun at the escaping bird. In short bursts, he alternated his left and right arms, utilizing them like exploding cannons. Continually firing shots at the bird in an attempt to lead its position and strike it down, he became quickly agitated as every volley he unleashed was easily avoided. Every banking turn and rolling maneuver the crane committed to was making it an extremely difficult target to hit. Despite its overgrown size, the bird was proving to be extremely agile.

With another warbling cry, a cry that Tomoyo felt was laced with a hidden fury, the bird circled around once more for a charge, but this time set its sights upon the two flying creatures attacking it. Without even bothering to approach, the bird released another gale of wind from its beak, flying low as it did so to try and shoot the two annoyances up and out of its way. The attack sent the two winged beings spiraling higher into the sky, though they managed to recover themselves from the attack quickly enough. Yet it had proved enough of a diversion, and the bird was able to dive underneath their position and make good on its escape attempt.

She thought it was low enough, and not wanting to lose the only chance she might get this night, Sakura took the risk. Pulling a long, pink card from a hidden pocket at the side of her dress, she threw it up above her. Tomoyo always expected those cards to flutter away in the wind, yet some invisible force always seemed to stop them and hold them in place while Sakura recited the incantations required.

In this case, all Sakura required was the card's basic power. She shot her winged staff into the sky, striking the card with the tip of the star-mounted ring, "Jump!" In a flash of rainbow light, her boots once again donned the miniature white wings that had originally accompanied them when she had first burst into view.

Before Tomoyo could ask what Sakura had in mind, the girl had already taken off at a dead run towards the angled guard wall. With one last glance to check the bird's position – it was mere seconds from being right overtop of them – she launched herself from the middle of the street in a small and short jump which landed her near the top of the wall. Using physics to her advantage, she coiled her legs in against the landing and put her entire effort into launching herself towards the blackened starry sky above. Her maneuver ended up having the perfect timing that she had wanted, as she flew right overtop of the passing giant crane and directly onto its back. Winded from the force of the landing, she instinctively grabbed at a tuft of feathers for a hand-hold while she attempted to draw her next breath.

She dared not to look at her current situation, and instead only concentrated on what her next act was supposed to be. For all she knew, both herself and the bird were already several dozens of meters into the air by now. Increasing the grip on those feathers with her left hand, using the staff as a sort of brace to keep those feathers there, her right hand reached towards her pocket to draw out another card. She just hoped that the giant bird beneath her hadn't gone too high up into the air by now.

Her grip loosened dangerously as the bird suddenly banked hard right, the gravity of the planet pulling her towards the bird's wing and away from whatever footing she had achieved. Sakura kicked her legs around, searching for another foothold, but she was now only attached to the bird by the few feathers that were still maintained in her grip. A grip that was quickly losing hold.

Flashes of blue and red shot out from the sky behind her, Sakura recognizing them as the magic attacks from her two guardians, Yue and Kerberos. She spun her head around behind the path the bird was taking, and took a small amount of relief as she spotted both of her faithful guardians chasing after them, taking warning shots to try and guide the bird into a safer position. They seemed to be gaining distance on the fleeing animal she was riding, but not by much.

Kerberos dropped down low and released another breath of fire, the volley blazing by just under the bird's right wing. Recoiling in fear, it suddenly banked hard left, causing Sakura's grip to again come dangerously close to being lost as she was swung about. With a sudden burst of speed, Yue covered the bird's other flank, shooting a silvery arrow at the tip of the bird's left wing. Whether the bird got the message or not, it straightened its flight path all the same, allowing Sakura to regain a position upon the bird's massive back. Then she lost sight of her guardians as the giant bird took to beating its wings with great force, Sakura noting the severe changes in inertia each time the feathered appendages flapped. The bird was gaining altitude, and quite swiftly at that. The air she was breathing was starting to grow thin.

Acting quickly, she tossed out hard before her the card she still held, allowing the winds swirling around her to eventually pull the card back her way again. With a sense of timing that only a trained professional could attain, she traded her wand into her right hand and shot it out forward, striking at the front of the Windy card as it returned to her. With a burst of visible green mist, the avatar of wind shot out of the confinement of its card form and hastily wove its way around, under, and around the bird again. As the thick weaves of the wind-made bindings began to constrict, the bird's movements started to become severely limited. Sakura reinforced her grip as their altitude began to drop as suddenly as it had risen.

Risking a glance to what was below, Sakura noticed that they were still moving along the street that she had just left. She guessed that when the bird had banked hard to the left, it had managed to come full about. The bird, sensing the impending crash, threw its entire body weight forward to attempt a landing. With whatever control of balance it had left, it shot its legs out into the ground and crashed into the asphalt, using it as a runway for what little ways it could before tripping up on the ropes of wind binding it. With a loud, warbling caw, it crash-landed hard onto the ground beneath it.

Using the inertia of the landing, Sakura coiled up for another jump. Bringing her legs under herself, and with the sudden decrease in velocity, she launched herself hard forward while using the power of the Jump to enhance her angle and landing accuracy. She landed onto the street with a loud clap of her boots, the powers of the Jump providing the shock resistance required to avoid breaking her legs from the harsh landing. Without missing a single beat, she spun herself about to face the fallen bird, its head resting closely enough to her that she could feel its labored breathing.

She raised her staff high, invoking her inner power. The wings upon the staff enlarged to about double their normal size, and the star mounted within the ring of the staff began to spin at an increasing rate. Locking her gaze onto her target, she recited the spell, "Return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!" With a swing of her arm, she pointed the wand directly at the white bird, and instantly it began to dissolve into several tendrils of white mist as it was absorbed into what appeared to be a new card made entirely out of rainbow light.

As the last of the mist was absorbed into the card, the light surrounding it dissipated to reveal a red background with a magic circle imprinted onto it. It was the sun-and-moon pattern that she was so very familiar with. The card spun around of its own accord and floated right into her hand, along with the pink card of The Windy that she had used to capture it. The red-backed card landed in her fingertips, and she smiled in victory for the camera at having successfully captured The Fly.

Tomoyo ran up to congratulate Sakura on her latest capture, but slowed her approach as Yue and Kerberos dropped in from above, each landing to one side of her beloved friend. It was too good of a heroics shot to miss. Eventually, though, she put down the camera to look between the three of them as they each examined the captured Fly card.

"I can't believe how well that went, and all considering we only did one take! Nothing less from Sakura!"

Sakura blushed slightly at the praise from her best friend, and turned her head towards Kerberos as he voiced his approval, "Yes, I must say that you performed excellently. I admit, I wasn't expecting you to get that on the first go around, but I guess all that training from 're-capturing' the other cards must have paid off. Half of the time that you were up in the air, I was expecting to have to dive after you!"

Tomoyo raised a finger, "Everything will always work out fine if it's her! She is, after all, the world's only Cardcaptor."

The praise from Tomoyo just never ended when it came to Sakura's abilities of being a Cardcaptor. The fact that she was the world's _only _Cardcaptor only made the praise that much more insistent. If anything at all had changed over the past six or so years, it was most certainly _not _that.

She giggled hesitantly, not completely sure of what she could say to the situation, so instead she turned and walked over to the edge of the street, to where a thin little book was laying open on the ground. Kneeling down, she examined the pages where she had written in the instructions, and with a final nod in recognition of a job well done, she closed the book to find it unnamed, marked only by an eight-pointed star.

The book suddenly dissolved into a wisp-like mist, swirling about in front of her before reverting into another card, the Create. At the same time, a soft light emanated from the Fly that Sakura still held, its color and images changing from that of the old Clow Cards and back into the current coloring of the Sakura Cards, the same colors and patterns that adorned her Windy and Create cards. She whispered her gratitude at the three inanimate objects for their efforts and participation, and felt a pulse of warmth flow through her fingers as the cards each gave their reply. Smiling to herself, she dug for the pocket opening in her dress and carefully inserted the three cards back into place with the rest of her deck.

Sakura stood back up and turned to face her friends, "Well, that should be the last of them. Now you should have all the cards recorded, right?"

"Yes. Thanks to your efforts, I was able to fully complete my library collection of all your Cardcaptor activities," the black-haired girl replied, nodding in affirmation, but then she turned her head aside and thought aloud to herself, "Though I am worried now."

"About what?" Sakura asked, concerned that they had actually missed something.

Tomoyo cupped her hands together, her prized video camera held between them, "Now that all the cards have been recorded onto tape, I'm going to have to find a new way to record you wearing my costumes. The only problem there is that with the first trimester of high school starting up next week, my chances will be limited at best."

Sakura, despite just being told that Tomoyo _still_ had costumes for her to wear, nodded knowingly. With the new school year fast approaching, and considering it was their first year of high school no less, their spendable time together would become severely limited over the next few months. Even more limited if they were to end up applying for different institutions, as was the most probable case.

Sakura herself had applied for Seijou High School, where her big brother had attended while she had still been in the elementary grades. With some last-minute after-school tutoring, she had managed to clear the prerequisites and had successfully entered into the school roster, but she was still unaware of what school Tomoyo had applied for. Surely, with her level of intelligence, Tomoyo would easily be able to attend some of the more prestigious schools that Japan had to offer. It would not have even surprised her in the slightest if Tomoyo were to come up to her the next day wearing a Tokyo University uniform, let alone anything from a high school.

Then there was the matter of all their other friends, all of whom would likely choose different schools as well. Their teachers had continuously reminded them to cherish their days together, since the chances of everyone ending up in the same high school were likely remote at best.

"I'm sure we can find time somewhere," Sakura returned half-cheerfully, attempting to console her friend despite her rampant embarrassment at Tomoyo still wanting to dress her up, "After all, there's always the weekends. Maybe we can still do study groups together?"

Kerberos cleared his throat to gain the floor, "As much as I would like to help discuss your two futures, perhaps we should start heading back. It's getting late, and there's going to be trouble if someone discovers Tomoyo missing from home."

Tomoyo glanced at her watch: eleven-thirty-five P.M. At this late at night, the maids wouldn't risk entering her room. However, her mother had an instinct for knowing when she was up or not, and could easily discover that she wasn't there. She nodded her agreement, and with a helping hand from Sakura, jumped up onto Kerberos's back. Their departure from the area was quick and silent, the two guardians flying low over the park forest to avoid what little risk of detection there was.

_Weekends just aren't enough for me, _Tomoyo thought to herself.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	3. Sweet Sixteen

_1-3: Sweet Sixteen_

A bird chirped cheerfully in the nearby trees that lined the park's lake path, followed soon after by a small, cacophonous choir of birds as they began calling out to one another. The sounds of spring had hidden themselves away masterfully within the shade of the leaves, not that shade would have been a necessity on a day like today. The weather forecast had predicted a light, cool breeze coming from the west to offset the plus fifteen degree temperatures that had been expected that day. Still, the various puffs of clouds that dotted the sky gave up a welcome relief whenever they blocked out the sun for the short time that they were allowed.

Sakura walked her way along that familiar stretch of road, the one that she had taken for nearly every day of her life. Naoko walked along with her, using a single shoulder strap to carry the backpack that she had brought along with her. Sakura secretly wondered at what was inside, but considering the occasion that they were gathering for, she could stand to wait for a few more minutes. She deliberately chose to wait for those few more minutes, in fact. With the up and coming school term, this would be one of the few chances she had left to spend with her friends.

A cool breeze blew in from the waters beyond the fence that guarded the path, refreshing in its caress when taken in against the light afternoon sun. Sakura closed her eyes for a moment to enjoy the feel of it.

"I just realized what a perfect setting this would be for one of the screenplays I've been writing."

Sakura popped her eyes back open as Naoko's words broke into the spring-day ambience, "You're writing another play?"

"Yeah. It's based on a story I read back in grade school. It was in a used bookstore, that we had actually visited together one evening, that I came across an old and unmarked book that had this eight-pointed star set onto its front cover."

Sakura realized that Naoko was describing the front cover of the Create card which, coincidentally, she had went and captured the very same night that she had visited a used bookstore with her friends, Naoko included.

"It had suddenly disappeared the morning after I had purchased it. At the time, I had just assumed that a ghost made off with it or something," Sakura snapped upright as an old fear once again took its hold of her, but Naoko failed to notice and continued on, "But I remembered about it again just last week, and thought it would fit in well with the idea I've been toying with lately. The two plays that I wrote after my first drama at the Nadeshiko Festival got really good reviews, so I didn't want to disappoint."

"What was it about? The book I mean?" Sakura asked.

Naoko put a finger to her chin as she churned her thoughts about her head, "Umm... it was about this magician that had lived a long time ago in a mystical world. He was attempting to create beings of great power from his magic so that his pet familiars wouldn't be lonely anymore."

Sakura turned her head slowly to gaze at her walking companion with a sidelong glance, unsure of how to gauge Naoko's newly revealed information. Sakura began to wonder at just how much information the Create had managed to divulge in its time as a rogue card.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like Naoko had taken it seriously, "The story just fits perfectly with the new idea I had come up with, and now that I have a setting with which to expand on, I can start expanding on the original plot. The only problem now is that the book I had read was never completed."

"How do you mean?" Sakura asked, thinking it silly that a book would just be left half-finished. Then again, nothing was ever normal about magic.

"Well, the story kind of just left off with the magician sealing away his powers because he was preparing to pass away. After that, the author had written in that the reader should continue the story in their stead, and then that was the end of it. It had even included a working quill pen. At first, I had taken some of my ideas at the time, and had ended up writing on how the ghost spirit of a princess came along and found those powers, eventually releasing them so that the beings the magician had created wouldn't be trapped and lonely anymore. Now, though, I think that I can write an even better continuation to that story."

The description of Naoko's ideas for the continuation, and the events that had occurred the night of the Create card's capture, were uncanny. But Sakura was too busy being scared of the ghosts of princesses to properly notice. She instead asked, in a rather unsteady voice, "What k-kind of cont-tinuation?"

"I was thinking that I would instead have the spirit of that magician appear to someone he chose, and have that person release the power of the beings the magician had created. A message from beyond the grave!"

Sakura did not like where this was going, and quickly sought for a way out of it. Her eyes darted in every direction possible in search of an escape. Within moments, far too long of a wait for her, she found her salvation as she spotted the side-trail into the secluded clearing where the others would be waiting. Pointing towards the half-hidden path, Sakura drew the attention away from Naoko's current topic of discussion, "Look, there's the path into the clearing! Come on, the others are probably waiting for us already!" Before Naoko could continue her conversation, or reply to Sakura's rather urgent departure, the brown-headed girl had already dashed on ahead, weaving around the trees and along the barely-visible dirt road.

Naoko proceeded to follow along with a bit more poise, though she found herself muttering at how anyone could dislike ghosts and their ilk. She was well aware by now of Sakura's fear of ghosts, or at the least was less naïve of it, but still...

She eventually caught up with Sakura, who was just breaking through to the far side of the path for herself. As they entered the clearing, they spied a picnic blanket already placed upon the ground, with two baskets and their contents either spread out, or still being placed by Chiharu and Takashi. Sakura glanced about, looking for Rika, but it was obvious that the girl was not present. Sakura set her backpack nearby the edge of the blanket while she asked, "Where's Rika? I thought that she was meeting up with you two before coming here?"

Chiharu, who had just set down a pile of small paper plates, looked up, "She called me a couple of days ago and said that she wouldn't be able to make it, so she asked me to relay her gift in her stead."

Takashi finished Chiharu's train of thought, "Apparently, her father had returned from overseas as a part of a vacation, and she had wanted to spend her time with him, but as a result she'd left her school preparations to the side until after her father's departure."

Sakura got the message, but she was glad. It was worth not getting to see one of her friends, if that friend was able to be more happy in return. It was something that she had learned from Tomoyo a long time ago, and it seemed to have stuck with her.

Now it was Chiharu's turn to ask, "How about Tomoyo? Shouldn't she have come with you? I know she wouldn't miss this for anything!"

"She had called me last night and said that she couldn't make it as well," Sakura replied, remembering how extremely disheartened Tomoyo had sounded over the phone, "I guess her application for her high school finally went through, but that the reply had been lost in the mail. She's been busy all day making arrangements with the school for uniforms and class listings."

"Did she say what school she had applied for?" Takashi asked, sliding a pair of small lunch boxes from his basket as he spoke.

Sakura shook her head, "With all the chaos that I could hear through the phone, I imagine she didn't have time to tell me much more than she did. Not wanting to keep her, I also didn't think to ask."

Sakura removed her shoes, stepping carefully onto the blanket as she did so. Naoko followed suit, working herself into a comfortable sitting position while Sakura handed Chiharu the sleeve of plastic cups that she had requested. Chiharu accepted them with her thanks, and tore the top of the sleeve open while Takashi dug through her basket for the chilled thermos they had brought.

Chiharu passed the cups to Takashi one at a time, and he passed them out in turn to Naoko and Sakura as he filled them with the thermos's contents. When everyone had a full cup of what was probably some kind of juice (Naoko had guessed correctly with cherry flavor), Takashi raised his drink to mark the occasion, "Well, on behalf of Tomoyo and Rika, congratulations on your sixteenth birthday, Sakura!" Chiharu and Naoko both raised their cups with him in a toast to that celebration.

Sakura smiled brightly when her age was finally made official, "Thanks, everyone. This really means a lot to me, considering you all must have school preparations to deal with, too."

Chiharu shook her head as she started passing out the paper plates, "No, don't worry about it. All of our school preparations have been done since last week, which left us plenty of time to plan this out."

Sakura smiled in appreciation, but that face was wiped away by a mask of curiosity as a question popped into her mind, "Speaking of preparations, which schools are you three going to?"

"We applied for a high school program that's being run by the Waseda University. It should be easier to get into the university itself, that way," Takashi replied as he pulled out the last of the box containers and placed it onto the ground, putting it within easy reach of everyone, "We were accepted just one week after applying."

Sakura took a sip of the juice in her hand, "We? You mean both you and Chiharu were accepted into the same school?"

Even as Chiharu nodded, Naoko broke in, "And me too! I got accepted into 'Waseda High' too!"

Chiharu's face brightened up considerably, "Wow, that means we can walk to school together!" She took a sip of her own juice, then turned the question onto Sakura, "By the way, which school did you apply for?"

Sakura knew what Chiharu was trying to imply, but sadly had to deny her, "Not the one at Waseda, unfortunately. I applied for Seijou High, the one near our old elementary school. I've always wanted to go to the same school that my brother and Yukito had went to."

"Well, that's not so bad," Naoko noted, "At least you won't have far to walk, or have to change your morning schedule."

"Which is good, because I still have trouble waking up on time in the morning," Sakura added shyly.

"Well, let's start eating. We don't want to still be sitting here when it starts to get dark, right?"

Sakura nodded at Takashi's question, and moved to open the box nearest to her, which everyone else mimicked with their closest portions. The box she had opened for herself contained fresh-cut sushi pieces, possibly crab. Taking a piece for herself, she passed it along to Naoko on her right, and accepted a box of still-warm egg omelettes from Chiharu. Before long, her small plate had pieces from all the boxes that had been unpacked.

She rolled aside a ball of wrapped rice, and picked at one of the sushi pieces. Definitely crab, and it was not very often that she got to try that kind of seafood. She popped it into her mouth, and as soon as she had it swallowed looked over at Takashi, "This is great! What did you make it with?"

"It's nothing specific, just a selection of herbs that I found at a store near home," he replied, raising his finger to make a point, "I could show you what you need if you want to try making it yourself."

Chiharu's eyes instantly shot over to Takashi's position. He was getting ready to talk again, but his finger was not going down yet.

"In fact, did you know that the trend of making sushi was started back in the Jomon Period? It was when a flying fish jumped out of the Sea of Japan and right onto GAH–!" Takashi's tale was cut short from a sharp lance of pain coming from his right ear, with Chiharu having shot her arm over to grab at it. She didn't even bother to admonish him, as was normally the case, and instead just wrenched at his ear a bit more before releasing it. The short cry of agony that followed did not sound pleasant to either of their two witnesses.

In the long run, they managed to finish their meal in relative peace. At the very least, Takashi did not attempt to come up with any further stories, which pleased Chiharu's arm greatly. Within the shade and privacy of the grove that they inhabited, they had actually managed to enjoy a rather pleasant afternoon, despite the nearby playground that was overflowing with rambunctiously playful children, each one of them likely attempting to make the most of their last days before school again entrapped them for the next few months.

Sakura could not help but think to herself that, while others had been busy playing to their hearts' content, or practicing their schoolwork or artistic lessons, she had been out saving the world from a deck of mischievous magical beings. In a way, it had been more fun than anything else she could have ever imagined.

Her attention snapped back to Earth when Chiharu pulled a small-sized carrying cooler from out of nowhere, though Sakura assumed that it had been hiding away in a nearby bush. As Chiharu popped the lid open, releasing a soft veil of cold mist from its interior, she put on a crafty smile, looking up at Sakura while still trying to gain a careful hold of whatever was inside, "Since we were able to put some extra time into planning today's outing, the five of us – that is, Tomoyo and Rika included – decided to throw a little something extra into the mix."

Chiharu finally managed to get her hand under whatever was in the cooler, and with the care of a surgeon at the table lifted away from within its confines a plastic-domed platter with an elaborately designed, star-decorated ice cream cake held within. Setting it equally as carefully onto the picnic blanket, she removed the protective plastic covering, releasing another puff of mist as the sudden temperature change caused a fog to build up. Placing the plastic lid back into the cooler, Chiharu flashed a bright smile as she pulled a small knife out in place of that lid. Takashi pulled a pile of paper desert plates out from behind him, which Chiharu proceeded to fill as she began cutting out portioned slices from the cake.

She looked up from her cutting just long enough to comment, "With Tomoyo's help, we were able to scout out a pastry parlor with a rather exemplary service record. We all pitched in some portions of our allowances to buy it, or in Yamazaki's case, part-time job money, but this one is Tomoyo's gift to you. She paid the majority of the cost."

"And what good is a birthday cake," Naoko put in, pulling a bundle of books out from the backpack that she had brought along with her, "without birthday presents to go along with it?"

Sakura took the bundle of books that Naoko handed her, and noticed that they were bound together with a beautiful blue ribbon. She turned the books to read the titles on the spines, but Naoko added, "And before you ask, no, they're not horror novels. They're some of my more favorite fantasy stories, and I thought you might like to try them."

Sakura felt ready to jump into the trees, but quickly calmed herself at Naoko's reassurance. She even worked up a reply, "This is great. I can start reading them tonight, even! Thanks!"

"And this guy can read with you!" Sakura turned to Chiharu's voice, spotting in her hands a basketball-sized plush toy that resembled a panda bear. She also noticed a small bag that Chiharu must have also hidden away within the bushes along with the cooler.

"This plush toy... is it the panda you bought at Twin Bells?" Sakura asked slowly, trying to recall the features of the round white ball of fluff that had caused so many problems for her during her first few visits to that store.

"No, it's not the same," Chiharu denied, shaking her head, "But the two are friends, and they gave me a great idea. I can give you this one, which is friends with mine. This way, we'll always have a way to remember each other, even if school and life eventually put distance between us."

"Wow, thank you. Now we can always be friends! I'll put him beside the little doll Tomoyo gave me. He can easily read my books with me from there!"

"Oh, right!" Chiharu pounded a fist into her hand, as if remembering something vital, and pulled a small blue box from her pocket, "The gift from Rika. She gave it to me just as we were leaving the bakery, and asked me to give it to you."

Sakura accepted it graciously, and slid the lid off the top of the box. Removing the protective tissue that was layered overtop of the box's contents, she carefully pulled out a small, brooch-style hairpin decorated with a white-winged, purple flower. Within the flower was a small, pink, five-point star. The entire design was itself attached to a pair of larger, golden wings.

Sakura stared at it, taken by the beauty of the object in her hands, while Chiharu explained, "She said that she had found it in a jeweler's store that had opened not to far from her house. It had reminded her of the one that you had given her back in grade four, after she had lost her own, so she thought that it would make a good return gift."

Sakura placed it gently back into the box, putting the tissue lining and box cover back in their original places. She didn't want to get such a beautiful ornament dirty, or risk dropping it. Placing the box off to the side, she turned back to the others, "It's so pretty... I have to make sure to thank her later."

"And lastly, my own little gift," said Takashi, as he pulled out a small, thin plastic case from behind him. Sakura looked it over curiously while carefully undoing the thin red ribbon that was tying it shut. It was some kind of compact disc jewel casing, this much was obvious. Takashi had often carried two or three of them with him in grade nine, usually all containing discs that he had made for himself. When she opened it, there was indeed a silvery disc placed inside, though it held no labelling of any kind aside from the disc's manufacturer.

She looked back up to Takashi, "What's on it?"

"It's a collection of classical arts that I thought you might like, since you seemed to really like listening to that kind of music lately. I even managed to secure a recording of some performances that Tomoyo took part in. She was more than happy to provide them. The list of all the songs is on the inner cover of the case."

Sakura pulled out the case cover and opened it up. Within the two-page booklet was indeed a list of the disc's entire contents, written neatly in a typed font along with the artists involved and the length of the song.

"And this will give my new friend and I something to listen to while we read our new books," she commented, sliding the cover booklet back into the casing. She closed it and placed it with the flower hairpin, "Thank you, Yamazaki. And thank you, everyone."

"You know, that reminds me," Takashi added, raising a finger to make a point, "of something I read a long time ago about how music was first brought to Japan. There was this little girl who lived in a village just outside of what would later be known as Naniwa, or the city of Osaka, who loved to write poetry. Then one day, she noticed a bird sitting near her in a tree. As she worked on one of her latest poems, she decided on a whim to read her newest literature aloud to that bird."

So far, the story seemed likely, but Chiharu knew better. She tensed her arm in anticipation.

"She read the poem to the bird, and when she finished, it trilled to her in a lovely singing voice. Happy that the bird had liked her poem, she read out another one from memory. Except this time, the bird followed along with her, whistling a note for each word the girl recited. Intrigued, the girl sang each word using the notes that the bird had used, until she had performed the first Japanese song."

"Oh, really? A bird taught a girl how to sing?" Sakura asked, enthralled by Takashi's latest history lesson.

The youth nodded, "Yep, and the surprising part is that the song she had created was owowow–!" his lesson was cut short as Chiharu snatched at his ear again, which was still sore from the last time she had grabbed at it.

Chiharu could not hold back her scolding tongue this time, "That's enough of those lies! You're just about to enter into high school. One would think you'd grow out of it already!"

Chiharu released his ear after having proverbially chewed it off and testily grabbed at the plate of cake she had set down in front of her, "Come on, let's finish up the cake before it starts to melt."

Sakura lifted up her own plate and gladly dug into its contents with her plastic fork. With a thought, however, she looked over to ask Takashi for the name of what the song had actually been called. She was unable to get a reply, however, as Chiharu had shoved a rather large helping of the cake into his mouth, stifling him before he could begin another round of story-telling. Oh well.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	4. Bedtime Story

_1-4: Bedtime Story_

Sakura turned the page on the first of the novels that she had gotten from Naoko, adjusting the position of her arm to keep it from falling asleep. Lying down on her left side, with her head and pillow propped up against the head of the bed behind her, had seemed to be the best way to allow her new panda friend to read along with her as it sat on the shelf beside her old, Tomoyo-made doll, but it unfortunately came with the downside of making her supporting arm occasionally prone to the tingling loss of sensation. She eventually just flipped around onto her back, while ensuring that she kept the book held off to one side so that the panda could still see.

The music from her laptop's media player, the same laptop that she had destroyed several years ago, now refurbished and handed down to her from her father, started itself up on the next track: a slow, fluidic piano melody that reminded her of Eriol practicing on the school piano. The song itself, of course, wasn't anything that he had ever played, but the skill and emotions that could be derived from the harmonies and notes were easily similar. Placing a finger inside her book to keep her place, she closed it up to put herself within the song, closing her eyes alongside her book to listen more closely to the notes.

The artistic work of the piano glided along with a feeling of peace and serenity, a soft and enchanting flow that spoke of the human heart. She imagined a river within her mind, the music gliding her along within its harmonies and endearing rhythms down the tranquil waters. Once again the notes on the piano began to pick up, this time with a synthesized choir background, and she could feel the emphasis that it placed on The Truth of the Soul, as was the name of the song. She smiled sadly as the song flowed its way into a darker lilt, a somewhat melancholic melody that was attempting to draw the audience into the furthest depths of human emotion. Then, flowing ever on, it picked up in speed once more as an entire orchestra jumped into the mix, giving the song's spirituality a slightly epic feel to it. Her fingers began to tap along with the increased tempo, keeping in time with the light marching drum, the emphasizing pounds of the bass drum, and the trill of the digital bell.

...Digital bell?

She snapped to her senses and shot her eyes over to the laptop's screen. It had switched away from its Bouncing Kero screen saver and was now displaying a small, blue-flashing button on the taskbar at the bottom of the monitor. Placing a bookmark into her novel, she set the book down onto the bed and moved over to her desk chair. With a few practiced keystrokes, she brought the flashing bar up into a full-screen mode, and found that her email program had picked up a new message for her. Using the mouse that was attached to the laptop, she moved and clicked the pointer around the screen until she had the email open and was able to read it:

* * *

_Something's come up. A family emergency, of sorts, which means that I'm going to be away from any form of internet access for a few days.  
If you don't hear something from me over the next week, that's why, so don't worry too much about it.  
I'll write you an extra-large email later to make up for it, okay?  
Give my regards to everyone, and I'll talk to you again soon. Hopefully within just a day or two if things go well._

_Love,_

_Syaoran Li  


* * *

_

Her mood dropped a few notches as she read the first few words, only to sink even lower as she finished reading her love's message. It was bad enough that she had not seen him in almost three years, and quite literally at that. The last time they had physically been in each other's company was the New Year's festival the same year they had captured the Nothing card at the amusement park. Now she would be out of contact with him altogether? He had said that it was just for a "few days", but that was beside the point!

All the same, she managed to cheer herself up as she hit the Reply button, pecking away at the keyboard as best she could until the message, "_I'll wait for as long as it takes,_" came up on the screen. She typed out her name at the bottom of the email, ensured that she had not spelled anything incorrectly, then pressed the Send button on the screen. After a minute of processing, the message closed up, and a new box came onto the screen saying that her message had been sent. Half-smiling to herself, she moved the mouse around some more to close the email program.

Another window popped up on her almost immediately after, causing Sakura's mood to jump right back where it had been before. It was one of her "instant messengers", as Tomoyo had called them. In the window that had appeared, the sign name that Tomoyo herself went by was listed at the top, with a message following it, "Good evening, anyone home?"

Sakura fumbled with the keys, attempting to write out a new message, "Yes, I'm here. Just finished replying to an email from Syaoran."

It took Sakura what felt like a full minute to type all of that, but her best friend seemed to wait patiently for the reply. A few moments after she sent her message through, an indicator at the bottom of the screen noted that Tomoyo was typing up another message. Within another moment, it appeared on Sakura's screen, "Syaoran? How's he doing in Hong Kong?"

"He didn't say. In fact, he actually said that he's going to be away for a few days. Something about a family emergency."

The typing notice indicator lit up again, "I see... I hope he's okay. Anyway, I'm sorry that I had to miss your birthday party today. It's been extremely hectic lately, what with the household staff trying to help me get ready for school and all."

Sakura practically jumped as she realized that she still didn't know what school Tomoyo was going to be attending, and she was now being presented with the perfect opportunity to ask just that. She made to type up the question on her mind, but pulled her fingers away from the keyboard as the typing indicator at the bottom of the screen flashed up again.

Tomoyo's next message came through momentarily, "As it is, I'm waiting for one of the maids to come in and record some tailoring measurements so that the school can provide a proper-fitting uniform."

This new information made Sakura change up from her original question "This late at night? It's almost ten o'clock!"

Tomoyo's reply took a few moments longer than normal before coming through, "The school's letter of acceptance coming in as late as it did threw off our scheduling rather badly. All of us over here will probably be busy for most of the weekend."

Before she could be distracted any further, Sakura finally asked her question, "Oh yeah, I never got to ask. What school did you apply for, anyway?"

The typing indicator went up as soon as she had hit the enter button to send her long-awaited question. Sakura sat there patiently, watching the screen in a nearly overwhelming anticipation of those words to come through and finally put her thoughts to rest. After more than a few seconds, however, the indicator was still showing. Tomoyo's message had yet come through, and she didn't think that Tomoyo would take this long to type out the name of the school. Wondering if Tomoyo was even still there, Sakura sent another message through to ask just that.

She waited a few seconds more, then noticed that the typing indicator had disappeared, only to have it come up again just as fast as it had vanished. A message finally came through, "I apologize, but the mistress has been taken away for more measurements. I am afraid that she may not be available for the rest of the night."

Sakura's heart hit the proverbial floor, as she read what she could only assume to be the words of one of Tomoyo's maids. Once again, Sakura had missed her chance. It was probably going to be up to a full week's wait now before she could manage to learn which school Tomoyo was going to attend. Mentally picking herself up, she typed a thank you to the maid that had replied, and wished Tomoyo good night through her. With that, she turned off the messenger program, then pressed the glowing button on the side of the machine to turn it off. Folding the laptop in on itself, she stood up and moved to her bed while it powered itself down.

On a whim, she turned herself back around and instead opened the top drawer to her desk. Looking inside, she peered around at the various pens, pencils, and other office supplies that she kept in there, along with the pink book that had her name engraved onto it. After a moment of mindless staring, she picked up the book, closed the drawer, and again moved to sit down on her bed. Snapping off the latch to the cover and opening the book, she ended up just sitting there and looking at the cards. A thought at the back of her mind began to nag at her gently.

There was something she was supposed to remember...

A slight knock came from the door as Kero flew into the room, kicking the door open slightly as he went so as to make room for the small plate of pie that he was carrying. Squeezing through the small crack he had made for himself, he hovered into the room, spinning around to kick the door shut as he spoke, "Sakura, I've got desert for us! It's a slice of apple p... What's wrong?"

Sakura looked up to her guardian familiar as Kero hovered away from the door and landed himself beside her on the bed. He put the plate off to the side and jumped up onto her arm, staring intently at the book of cards that she had herself just been looking at, but he couldn't sense anything wrong with neither the cards nor her. There was also nothing detectable nearby that could have distracted her in this way, though he assumed that Sakura must have had a good reason for whatever it was that she was doing.

He looked back to his mistress, "I don't sense anything out of the ordinary here."

"It's not that I sense something," she told him quietly, closing the book gently, "it's just... I was trying to remember something."

Kero's right eyebrow rose up slightly as a curiosity overtook him, "You remembered something? What?"

"A dream."

Kero jumped away from her arm and landed on top of the closed book that she held, turning to face her so that he would have center stage, "You had a dream? Like the premonitions from when you first started collecting the cards?"

"No, not quite like that," she replied, shaking her head slowly as she attempted to sort out her thoughts, "Those dreams were... vague and hard to remember. I could see every single detail of what was around me, as if I was actually standing at those spots in the real world, but it had taken a huge effort to try and recall them after waking up. This new dream, though? I can remember every single bit of it, without even trying. It's like I had actually lived out those moments. But all that was there were images and ideas, nothing that was overly specific or detailed. Everything else was just an all-encompassing darkness."

Kero jumped up into the air, and using his powers to keep himself afloat, folded his legs up as though he were sitting down. Crossing his arms and bowing his head, he attempted to think up what this could possibly mean. Several seconds passed before he looked back to his mistress to ask, "When you had this dream, what did you see, exactly?"

Sakura allowed her focus to drift away, her eyes beginning to stare off into space as she recalled the events that had occurred within her dream, "At first, there was just the Tsukimine Shrine, except that all I could see was the archway at the entrance. Then my book, this book," she said, holding up her pink Sakura Book, "appeared behind me, but then it turned into the old Book of the Clow. I could hear footsteps, and then Clow Reed appeared from inside the shrine."

Kero went bug-eyed at the mention of his old master, but he held his tongue, allowing Sakura to continue, "He told me something about the sun, moon, and stars, and about some 'ancient adversary', but before I could ask what he meant, both he and the book had split themselves into three separate images. I could somehow tell that the two new images that had come from my book were themselves books, even though they were surrounded in a kind of clouded darkness. I couldn't make them out, but I just knew. Then the two images of Clow – the third one had just disappeared while I wasn't looking. They started to speak as if there were people beside me, but I couldn't hear anything he was saying, and I couldn't see anyone else around me. And then he – they – turned into twin beams of light and just shot up and away into the emptiness."

Kero sighed noisily. If Clow had been a part of her dream, then this was no joke concerning what she had witnessed. The big thing, though, was that he didn't have a single clue what it all could mean. A set of books could have meant anything, as Clow Reed had left behind an untold number of texts on magic and the occult. The presence of Clow Reed himself usually meant trouble enough, anyway, to say nothing of whatever this "ancient adversary" was.

When Sakura started to speak again, however, he sensed something within her voice, and he knew that this would be more trouble than was normal. Her voice began to tremble slightly as she continued further, "Then, a little white bird flew in front of me, and the both of us were soon pulled into this massive, black whirlpool that a set of dark orbs had created. I can't remember very much beyond that. And you know, in all of my other dreams, I have never felt scared or wanted to run away from what I was seeing. But this time, I had wanted to wake up so badly and just forget the nightmare that I was watching..."

He was afraid of that. Sakura's dream had provoked an emotional response, something that spoke volumes as to its intent. It was a warning, clearly, but for what?

"But there was one thing I heard, before the dream went away. Clow's voice came back to me, and this I remember the most clearly. He said to me, '_When the Seal on them is released, a catastrophe will befall this world_.'"

Kero's head darted up Sakura's quotation, catching her gaze as he spoke, "That's what Clow warned me about before I was sealed into the book! The catastrophe of the cards... that should the Cardcaptor claimed by the Selector fail against the Judge during the Final Judgement, the seals upon the cards would be released and all memories in relation to them would be erased. But what does that have to do with anything? All the cards have been reborn under your magic, so they can't possibly be re-released now."

Sakura sighed quietly to herself and looked back down at her book of cards. Opening it again, she placed her left hand upon the top of the deck, feeling a warm embrace as the power of the cards extended out and encompassed it. She drew up the first card, which ended up being the Create card, and wondered if it could actually be possible for her to lose her magical friends to some unforeseen event.

"In any case," noted the small orange guardian, unfolding from his mid-air contemplative position to land on the desk across the room from her, "you should start carrying the cards around with you again. I have no idea what we should expect to happen, so it would be best to remain prepared. A dream with Clow in it could mean anything, at the moment."

Out of the blue, Sakura changed the topic, "Hey, Kero... why would my dream be so different from before? Even with the few minor dreams that I've had over the previous few years, I've been able to recall my surroundings in full, but usually I can never remember the smaller details of the dream, unless it's the Dream card showing it to me. This new one is the exact opposite... I can remember the entire dream, as if I had actually been there, but none of the few images that were there made any sense."

Kero folded his arms together again, and sat himself down over the edge of the desk, "It all has to do with how certain the outcome of the prediction will be. In the past, you've had full recognition of locations and people around you, even of of those you hadn't even met. Even if you couldn't immediately identify some of them, you still felt that you knew who they were, right? Well, those situations were guaranteed to occur, because they were fully pictured. Some had even been preemptively planned by Clow Reed and Eriol, so it was easily predictable stuff. But as the scenery within your dreams become more and more unclear, or rather, as there becomes less scenery to witness, the certainty of its outcome also becomes equally unclear. It's almost like walking through a room with or without the lights on: either you know what to expect in front of you, or you don't. As for not being able to remember, chalk that one up to Eriol and that strange, shrine-maiden teacher of yours interfering with your magic, so that's not an issue this time.

"But that's not the part that worries me the most. You mentioned that you'd heard Clow's voice, and that he told you of the catastrophe of the cards?" Sakura nodded to confirm Kero's question, "Well, whenever a prediction is prompted to be written down like that, or in any other way brought to words in such a cryptic form, it can often be interpreted as a 'prophecy'. Meanwhile, predictions like visions, dreams, or card-reading are more akin to fortune telling, since they can more accurately predict the future. Where fortune telling brings us accurate outcomes of the near future, prophecy can rather be interpreted either several times throughout the entire course of time, or never mentioned ever again beyond its initial telling.

"Prophecy can also hold several meanings within one singular sentence. The fact that Clow himself brought up the catastrophe of the cards within your dream must mean that this is a very serious matter. What's more, from how you quoted it, Clow went and generalized what the Seal is supposed to be sealing, so there's no telling on what to watch for, either. I have no idea of where or when this catastrophe could strike, or for that matter what is supposed to be its trigger. I very much doubt that the cards will just go haywire on us, but this _is _Clow we are talking about."

Kero broke eye contact with her, choosing instead to stare out through the room's window, "Anything could happen, so I feel that this makes it all the more important that we stay on our guard over the next few days."

While listening to the miniaturized guardian's confusing lecture on prophecy and fortune-telling, Sakura had begun playing the dream over once again in her head, trying to make out some sense of whatever it was supposed to mean. As Kero's words began to sink in alongside the mystery and fear of her memories, she instinctively tightened her grip on the book that she held.

Through the rest of the night, and even as she slept, she made certain that her precious book never left her embrace.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	5. School Life Anew

_1-5: School Life Anew_

It was her first day of high school, so a special breakfast was in order. He was frying up a stack of her favorite hot cakes on the stove behind him, leaving the last of them to cook while he poured out some orange juice into a pair of glasses set onto the counter nearby. Returning the pitcher to the refrigerator, he moved his attention to the sizzling food on the stove top and flipped that last hot cake over.

He raised an eyebrow, then grinned slightly as a set of familiar footsteps rushed their way down the stairwell. She was early.

"Good morning!"

Fujitaka Kinomoto turned about as he placed the last of the hot cakes onto the plate that he had prepared, and greeted his daughter brightly, "Good morning, Sakura. You're up awfully early today."

"First day in a new school!" she exclaimed cheerfully, hanging her backpack on the backrest of her usual chair, "I was too excited to stay asleep! Good morning, Mother, " she greeted softly to the ever-present, ever-changing framed photograph of her mother that always rested on the china cabinet.

"I expect that Kerberos has overplayed his games again. He wasn't fluttering around the moment I started cooking," he noted idly, setting down the two plates of hot cakes onto the table while Sakura assisted in placing the remaining cutlery.

She looked over to him with a half-reserved grin, "Yeah, he kind of went hyper over that pie you brought home last night. I guess he tried to work it off."

Even after all this time, she wasn't exactly used to having everyone in her family know practically everything about her magic, and of what she used to do in her earlier years. She still remembered how, about a month after the sealing of the Hope, both Touya and Yukito had approached her and asked that Yue and Kerberos be formally introduced to her father. Both Yukito and Yue had insisted that if family relations were to continue as they were, and with both Sakura and Touya knowing the truth, it was only fair that their father be told as well.

Kerberos had almost had a heart attack after hearing that, since he had believed that the snow-rabbit was still quite in the dark about everything, except for the awareness of Yue's existence.

When the two siblings and the two guardians had finally sat down with their archaeologist father during a family dinner that next evening, and explained everything that had happened up to that point, Mr. Kinomoto was not only happy to welcome Kerberos and Yue, but also had admitted to already having had a slight suspicion of their existence. He had even noted that Kerberos had been the more so suspicious of the two, for obvious, food-related reasons. At first, Sakura had thought that her father would think she had been lying to him the whole time, but in the end he seemed to have understood, and accepted, the necessity that had caused her to hide the truth from him. Even though that truth had secretly cost him a small fortune in foodstuffs.

Ever since becoming an actual member of the family, Kero had taken to living in Touya's old room, as Sakura's elder brother had moved out and taken up residence with Yukito just prior to finishing college. Touya's departure had granted both guardian and mistress more of a sense of privacy, in the long run, but it also allowed for some rather interesting nights, whenever Kero would be on a video gaming binge.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he had fallen asleep while he was still playing his games!" Sakura added, suppressing a small giggle.

Her father nodded with his usual, warm smile, "I'll leave him something in the refrigerator for later, then. Well, shall we eat? You don't want to be late for your first day of high school."

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

It seemed like she was in a whole new world, being on the other side of that fence. Sure, there were several locations that were familiar to her, seeing as she had been here before various times as a visitor, but that didn't change anything. The fact remained that it still felt like it was her first time standing in that courtyard. Ever. Even the blue-blazer uniform felt strange, making her feel decidedly out of place, despite being among dozens of other students that were wearing the exact same thing. Sakura looked past the war memorial plaque, the one that sat as the centerpiece for Seijou High's main grounds, staring beyond it and into the building foyer in the hopes of finding some sense of familiarity awaiting her in this next frontier.

Then she smiled – a feature forged from a childhood impatience to want to experience all the new adventures that would likely await her – and started her way forward, walking around the memorial and on towards the front doors.

"Sakura?"

Sakura spun about at the familiar voice to spot a girl with shoulder-length red hair standing about five meters away from her. That was exactly the kind of familiarity she had been hoping for.

"Rika!" Sakura called out excitedly, quickly closing the gap to give Rika a friendly hug in welcome, "You're attending Seijou High as well?"

"Yeah. I couldn't stand being too far away from home, even if it was just for school. So, with my father's approval, I applied here. He had been hoping that I would attend something a bit more prestigious, like a privately run school, but he said that he just wanted me to be happy."

"That's right! You're father came back from overseas for a bit, didn't he?" Rika nodded to the question, and together they turned to walk into the building, "Oh! Thank you for the hairpin, it's beautiful. I love it!"

"It's the least I could do, seeing as you gave me yours," Rika returned with a bright grin, pushing the door open and waiting for Sakura to pass through before continuing on alongside her.

"Oh yeah, I don't suppose you've seen any other familiar faces around here? Anyone else we might know?" Sakura asked, searching for the hallway that lead to the grade ten classrooms all the while. For as often as she had been here, she had no idea of what rooms were reserved for what grades. Rika soon caught sight of a map posted to a bulletin board and pointed Sakura in the right direction.

The red-haired girl then answered the question, "No, not that I was able to notice. Mind you, I hadn't been here all that long before I spotted you. Although, there was a–."

The call of the clock tower bells located above Tomoeda Elementary rang out melodically into the morning air, interrupting Rika's thoughts and signaling the start of morning classes for the two schools. Finally locating the row of classrooms that were set aside for grade ten students, they parted ways, Rika being placed in a homeroom two rooms down from Sakura's. Looking up to the classroom sign that read as ten-one, the brown-haired, high school freshman inhaled a deep, calming breath, and slid the door open to allow herself in.

There were a plethora of students already occupying the classroom, made into several clumps as various friends and potential friends spotted each other and coalesced into social groups. Some of the nearby bodies even greeted her as she entered. Unfortunately for her, Sakura didn't really recognize anyone within the room, and aside from being polite in making return greetings, she for now just decided to keep to herself.

She did a quick scan of the room to determine a good seat for herself, regardless of whether or not the teacher later decided to reorganize seating positions. To her amazement, the corner desk where she had always sat was wide open, the one second to the back and beside the window. It was her most favorite view, as the sky-filled scenery of the world beyond allowed her mind a chance to relax whenever it needed to. She weaved through the groups of students and claimed the seat for herself before anyone else could chance to walk in.

With her backpack removed, she sat herself down behind the small desk. Suddenly feeling very tired, even though the day had yet to even begin, she placed her head in her hands, with her elbows resting upon the desk, and turned to stare out through the nearby open window. It was a nice view of the school's rear-side courtyard, being very similar to most of her old classroom settings, and she enjoyed the feel of the soft spring breeze that was flowing in. In this state of comfort and relaxation, her mind began to wander back to its original topic.

The possibility of making new friends was not lost to her. If anything, she fully expected to acquire a few new friends throughout the coming weeks. But it just wasn't the same either, considering that she had other friends that she had known since practically the start of her entire school career. She had already been planning to make an effort and introduce herself to a few people during the recesses, and honestly, she still fully intended to do so. Yet, for the moment, her heart just didn't feel up to it, too engrossed as it was within the want of familiarity.

_Sakura?_

Her eyes snapped wide open, her head shooting up from her hands as she realized that she had completely zoned out. Thankfully, the teacher had yet to arrive, so she was still safe. The students within the classroom were still milling about and talking it up with their peers. Some were even glancing her way on occasion, though whether they had thought her strange for spacing out, or if they were a source of potential friendship just waiting to be tapped, she couldn't be sure. Sakura smiled to herself in spite of it all, knowing that it was going to be a strange few weeks without any best friends to help keep her attention pointed to the front of the room instead of out the window. Most especially during mathematics class, and she couldn't help but laugh at herself for that one. Dispelling the thought, she put her hand back onto her folded hands and continued to stare out through the window anyway.

"I hope the teacher is a kind person," she muttered to herself, "I wonder if I would know them?"

"I doubt you know her, but she seems like a nice lady. Maybe a little strict."

Sakura's eyes snapped back open. Even wider than before, if it were possible.

She knew that voice.

Her head spun away from her hands and towards the desk to her immediate right in such a way that would make one think that it should have flown right off of her shoulders. In that desk, to Sakura's complete and utter amazement, sat her best friend. It suddenly felt as though the two of them were back in Tomoeda Elementary a few months prior, but Sakura knew better. This was Seijou High School. For a moment, she didn't want to believe her eyes, thinking that perhaps she had taken to daydreaming, but in the end, there was no doubt. Tomoyo was most definitely sitting right there next to her.

Blinking a few times to make sure she wasn't dreaming anyway, Sakura finally shook herself out of her state of wonderment and managed to put some words together , "What are you doing here!?"

"It's the first day of school classes," Tomoyo replied casually, an air of sheer giddiness surrounding her that she was just barely managing to repress, "I'm here for the same reasons as you, I should think."

Sakura couldn't believe it, for it was all too easy. Just like that, her school life had gone from having almost no one to relate to all the way to barely having changed at all. Now all that was left was for Syaoran and Eriol to suddenly appear in the two empty desks behind them.

Syaoran popping into her mind so suddenly brought forth a rush of fond memories, causing her to blush slightly. Shaking it off, she returned to the topic of Tomoyo's presence, "No, I mean, you could have applied for any high school you wanted. There must be better schools out there!"

Tomoyo didn't even seem to think about an answer. It was as if she had already expected these questions, "Seijou High is just as capable of getting me into the university I want as much as any other high school out there. So I took it one step further and decided to make things easier on myself, while at the same time staying close to friends and family."

"One step further?" Sakura repeated, frowning in confusion, "What do you mean by that?"

"Remember when I told you that my school application had been lost in the mail?" she asked. Sakura nodded cautiously, recalling the hectic mess that she had been listening to when Tomoyo had called to excuse herself from the birthday party.

Tomoyo grinned slightly, as though she were hiding a secret, "Well, before the school finally accepted my application, there had been delays due to the lateness of the papers arriving. For all the trouble they caused myself and my mother, they offered me compensation for time lost. With a bit of extra persuasion from my mother, they allowed me to take the classroom of my choice as a part of it. After a quick look at the school roster, I ended up here."

Sakura's frown grew deeper as Tomoyo explained the situation, because she just had to ask, "What kind of... persuasion?"

"Just a small financial investment into the school's private treasury."

Sakura leaned back into her chair, recalling that Tomoyo's mother was the president of a very well-to-do toy corporation. She could only guess as to how much a "small financial investment" was worth.

Instead of hazarding such a guess, Sakura changed the topic, "Well, in any case, I'm glad that there's a familiar face around here now. Rika will be happy to know that you're here too!"

Tomoyo nodded enthusiastically, "Not only do I get to stay together with my friends, but this opens up way more opportunities now, too!"

"Opportunities for what?" Sakura asked hesitantly, even though she already had a decent idea of what her friend meant.

A half-second stretch saw Tomoyo's hand diving into and out of her school bag to acquire her video camera, "To record you on video, of course! There are still several more costumes that you have yet to try out. I can't wait to see you act out another capturing scenario in them! My only problem now is, what else is there left to capture..? ...oh! There's an idea!"

Sakura giggled nervously, attempting to cover over the embarrassment that would otherwise be obvious.

_Of course_, she thought to herself.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

The black-haired girl sat down right next to the cute, brown-haired one he had been eyeing, partially blocking the distant view he had had from the opposite corner of the room. They were both pretty good looking, though, and they seemed to be acting as though they were long-time friends, which could possibly serve to make things easier. The one with the light-brown hair seemed to act with an almost fluffy air of innocence, while the friend that had taken up residence beside her seemed to harbor a deep intelligence by the way she held herself. Almost the perfect match. He grinned and elbowed the person sitting next to him.

"Hey, Kioshi, see those two in the back corner? I'll give you two to one odds that we can pull off a double date with them by the end of the week."

Kioshi was quite observant by most regards, and had easily spotted the two girls before his friend had even known that they were in the school. Still, he allowed his friend the benefit of first sight, and hesitated a moment to study the pair before replying, "Eight to one, Sadao. Don't bother."

"That's it?" Sadao asked humorously, giving his friend an incredulous look, "We spot probably two of the hottest looking girls in the school, and all you're going to say is 'eight to one'?"

When Kioshi failed to comment any further, Sadao snorted to emphasize his point, "Damn straight we're going to bother."

Kioshi only shrugged, which caused Sadao to scoff and completely disregard his friend. After considering his options, Sadao swiveled about in his chair to face his lean-built, glasses-wearing companion, "I say we go with simple reconnaissance this time. Learn their habits, approach them after school with an offer to best suit, then passively interrogate them in a private setting. The city library would probably be good. It's one of your plans, so it should work."

Kioshi half-nodded in a vague motion of agreement, but kept his side-glanced eyes locked onto the two girls. The dark-haired one was waving around a small, grayish object at this point, but that wasn't what truly had his attention. There was something about the brown-haired one that was setting her apart, something that was making him a bit uneasy about it all, otherwise he would have wholeheartedly agreed to Sadao's suggestion. He liked to think that he had had enough experience with relationships by now, both personal and otherwise, to tell when someone was "taken" or not, and both of these two girls were certainly setting off alarms in the back of his head to stay well and far away.

Not that Sadao would care. Once the man's mind was set to a task, he became engulfed with the need to resolve it, much to the point of being ignorant to all else. Attempting to deter Sadao now would only risk his wrath, and Kioshi had already said that it was a bad idea anyway.

Still, they _were_ pretty cute... especially the dark-haired one.

Having taken a moment to think, Kioshi finally turned back to his friend, a built-up, six foot even athlete with a strategically sharpened mind that belied his jockey appearance, though an easily-triggered temper more than made up for it. He raised a finger to gain Sadao's attention and state his opinion, but was quickly interrupted as the door just behind him slid open. Feet and chairs shuffled quickly as the students made their way to their respective desks, while a prim and proper-dressed female teacher entered into the room, carrying with her a small leather folder.

She carried herself with a strong aura of authority and grace, an attitude that began to worry some of the students. Many were already starting to think that they had landed themselves a hardliner for a teacher. Long, dark hair, almost pitch-black, flowed down to hang loose around the middle of her back, offsetting the dark-red, two-piece dress that seemed too thin for anyone to fit into. Stepping slowly across the room, her bright blue eyes swept across the room, taking in the various charges that had been placed under her care.

Sadao couldn't help but notice her, what with the slim dress and all, though he quickly found his attention wavering back to the two girls at the other end of the room. Soon enough he had returned to brooding over how to introduce himself and Kioshi to them.

The teacher stepped up to the podium at the front of the room, and holding herself as straight as she possibly could, cleared her throat to speak, "Students, good morning. My name is Ayame Noriko, and I will be your homeroom teacher for your grade ten career at this school. I wish you all a successful school year, and I hope that we can all get to know one another a little better over the coming months."

Ms. Noriko then put on a bright smile as the students greeted her in return, suddenly banishing her entire presence of authoritarian rule. Leaning forward slightly on the podium, she addressed the class with a bit more of a cheery voice, "Now, to start homeroom this morning, I would like the class to make a round of self-introductions. Somewhat childish, but humor me for a while, please. So... who would like to be first?"

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	6. The Walk Home

_1-6: The Walk Home_

"I'll talk to you later tonight then. Message me around seven!"

Tomoyo nodded and turned to make her way back into the school. Sakura also turned, but made her way for the school's front gate instead. Her meeting with the Cheerleading group's club director wouldn't happen until the end of the week, but unfortunately for her, the school choir had scheduled to meet together on the first day of classes, which meant that Tomoyo wouldn't be able to walk home with her. For as short a meeting as it was supposed to be, Sakura needed to be home early today, and so could not afford to wait on her best friend. Therefore, she hefted her backpack, turned left at the gate, and started out on her way home alone.

She took her sweet time, pacing herself and making it back to the park path in due course. The idea was to take it slow, despite her previous inability to wait, and hope that Tomoyo could somehow catch up to her, but there was also another reason. She more so wanted to see if anything else around her had undergone any significant change, now that her own life had changed somewhat considerably, reacquired friends notwithstanding. She cast her eyes about at the forested path around her, yet the trees continued to stand where they always had, and the path itself was as solid and straight as ever. Even the cries of children from the nearby Penguin Park, as they celebrated their release from classes for the day, seemed to be all too familiar to her memories. Sure, the paint on the various whitewashed benches was starting to peel away a bit, but that was beside the point.

Not everything had completely changed, and that was what mattered. The only true change was that her personal life had taken on a slightly different direction. If anything, she could probably safely say that pretty much nothing had changed at all. In that most of the visible changes had been limited and minimal, she was thankful.

Closing her eyes as she continued onwards, she tilted her head up and drank in the soft afternoon sunlight that attempted to filter its way in through the treetops. Even that felt so familiar to her.

"Excuse me?"

She stopped in mid-stride, turning her head to check for whomever was calling to her. By this, she spotted a pair of students some ways behind her, the both of them moving casually in her direction. They were wearing the blue-blazer uniforms of Seijou High students, and as they neared her she thought she recognized them from homeroom class. They, like several other students, had glanced her way once or twice during homeroom before the teacher had arrived, but she had been so busy wondering at Tomoyo's presence that she had paid very little attention to it. Not wanting to appear rude, she held her place and waited for the two to approach.

When they stopped a few paces away, Sakura asked of them, "Is there something I can help you with?"

The bigger of the two males shook his head, "We have no need of any help. We simply wish to introduce ourselves to a classmate, perhaps even work our way to becoming friends. My name is Sadao Raikatuji, and my friend here is Kioshi Sotomura. We noticed that you had arrived to class on your own, and thought that perhaps we could offer our potential assistance."

Sakura turned the rest of the way and smiled cheerfully. It was true that she did want to make new friends, and here was the perfect opportunity now presenting itself right to her. Albeit with a rather odd bit of timing and setting, but she didn't mind one bit. After all, it was saving her the effort of having to approach people for herself.

The other man, the leaner of the two, bowed low with a flare of regality, "A pleasure to meet your acquaintance." Sakura couldn't help but blush at the formality that was being offered, and bowed slightly in a return greeting, giving them her own name as she rose back up.

"Well then, Sakura, as a first act of friendship," the one named Sadao began, "I would like to offer our services in assisting with today's work. My friend, here, noticed that you seemed to be struggling during mathematics class. He suggested that he could offer his talents."

Sakura welcomed the offer of assistance that the two were making, especially considering that it was for her most difficult class, but sadly was forced to decline, "I would love to accept your help – I honestly do have trouble with math, at times – but tonight is my night to cook at home, and I'm afraid I cannot stay out too late. I do appreciate the offer, though."

Sadao was slightly stunned, but only slightly. This was the first time ever that an offer he had made had been rejected right off the bat, regardless of the situation. Normally, any female that his tag-team duo encountered was immediately so overly enamored by either his own sports-toned physique, or Kioshi's powerful intellect and charm, that they were quickly falling head over heels to become friends, and perhaps something more. He shook off the shock and anxiously stepped up to the plate again, rushing his words, "Are you sure? Perhaps we could call your home and ask if you could take some time over at the library to study up on some of the more difficult topics?"

Strangely, there was something nagging and pulling at the back of Sakura's mind. It was a feeling that she had never before thought possible. She was certain that the efforts of these two were genuine, that they were here out of the kindness of their hearts, but the urgency of Sadao's words had released a small voice inside the very back of her head, and it was telling her to believe otherwise. She made to silence the annoyance within her mind, but then she saw Sadao's eyes grow wide with anticipation, and within his now hawk-like gaze she saw something else: a hunger. She could see an impatience rising to the surface of Sadao's features, though for what purpose she couldn't be sure. But those eyes were completely fixated on her, watching her intently. It was almost like they were targeting her... and then the little voice made sense.

Suddenly, she felt like running, fast, and in any direction that would just get her away from there. She suppressed the instinct forcefully, and instead tried to consider a friendly way out of a situation that she no longer wanted to be in. She was probably just imagining things, anyway. The excitement of a brand new world was just getting to her, that was all.

"I appreciate the offer, really," she returned, though she wasn't too sure as to whether her voice sounded completely normal or not, "but I do have to be going home so I can start dinner. Thank you for the offer though, and I'll see you at class tomorrow!" Hoping it was enough, she bowed slightly, turned with a wave of her hand, and started her way along the path again.

Sadao was practically floored. Never before in his life had anyone been able to refuse one of his advances. At the very least, he had never completely scared someone away, let alone failed to convince them of his helpful, purely genuine intentions. He had seen it in her eyes as she was turning away from him. She was afraid for her safety. Afraid of him! This unfamiliar scenario was just too much for Sadao to handle, causing him to impulsively jump forward and latch onto Sakura's left arm before she could take more than two steps. He managed to get a grip on himself to avoid panicking or hurting her, but he maintained his hold on her all the same.

Yet panic she did, and she immediately pulled all of her weight into breaking free, grunting and crying for each effort she put in to escaping him, but his strength easily proved to be too much for her to attempt such an escape. His iron grip was overwhelming her feeble attempts effortlessly. She had thankfully taken to Kero's warning, though, and was now carrying her cards with her again, so her first thought was to invoke a simple, low-level card to defend herself with. Yet for that to work, she would have to summon her wand, and for _that_ she would need her hands free to perform the incantation spell. She tugged again against the iron grip of Sadao's hand, but to no avail.

"Hey, aren't you going a bit too far with this?" Kioshi whispered into his friend's ear, trying to talk some sense into him. Kioshi knew that his friend was impulsive by nature, a trait that came side-by-side with his hot-headed demeanor, but he had thankfully never witnessed the results of any failed attempts on Sadao's part, at least until now. He wasn't liking what he was seeing, and now just wanted to get the two of them out of there before anything worse could chance to happen.

All he received in reply was a small shove and fiery glare, all in prelude to the building anger that Sadao could no longer seem to control. Not only were Sadao's advances being completely and needlessly refuted at this point, but now his best friend Kioshi was starting to betray him. It was as if everything was going completely wrong in just one single moment! Well, he wasn't going to let this chance slip him by.

"Come on! Just come with me," he growled to Sakura. His tone was bit forceful for his liking, but he no longer cared, "Once you've had a chance to see how useful we can be, you'll change your mind."

Footsteps came pattering up from behind in a rush, and Kioshi was pretty sure of who it was. Turning to check, he felt a pang of panic as Sakura's black-haired friend ran into view from one of the side paths. She had surely heard her friend struggling against something, and had come running in to check for the problem. He was utterly ashamed to have been found as involved with that problem.

"Sakura!" Tomoyo called out, wanting to intervene in what suddenly had become the scariest moment in her life, but that same fear interrupted any chance of her reacting decisively to the situation.

Sadao took notice of her arrival, as well, "Hey, there's your friend. Think she'd like to come too?" he asked Sakura, who had given up her vain struggle and was now looking for a way to possibly defend herself instead, "Hey, Kioshi, think you want to try for it?"

"Err, not really..." Kioshi muttered to himself, wishing he could just disappear into the bushes. But he couldn't just leave his friend like this, or leave these two girls to his friend's now out-of-control temper and bruised ego. Rather, he needed to play along just long enough so that he could convince Sadao to take up this pursuit in a more civilized manner. Or perhaps, not at all.

"Please, just leave me alone..."

Sadao turned to reply to Sakura's plea, a confident grin building onto his face.

He cried out sharply, more in pain than surprise, as his vice-like wrist inexplicably felt like it had been shattered into pieces.

Sakura was completely unaware of what had just happened, but she didn't really care to begin with. Taking advantage of the moment, she broke free of Sadao's loosened grip, shouldered her way blindly past both him and his friend, and stumbled straight towards her own friend. Tomoyo caught up the half-crying Sakura before the fleeing girl could trip over herself, pulling her into a protective embrace, and together they turned back to seek out what it was that had just changed the inevitable into their favor.

Where before there had just been four people, now there were five. The fifth person had, from Tomoyo's point of view, appeared onto the scene in a rush from behind a nearby tree, had swung at the larger man's wrist with a dark-brown, staff-like object, and was now standing defensively between the two girls and their would-be attackers.

By first glance, he was obviously foreign, judging by his light skin tone, though his hair was just a shade off of a pure pitch-black. He wore a black coat to match, covering over a dark red shirt, with dark blue jeans and white running shoes to complete something comparable to a typical American look. In his left hand he held a polished wooden staff, with a length of fabric woven tightly around the top foot or so of its length, possibly to serve as a hand hold for a walking stick. There was also a pole-shaped black bag shoulder-strapped to his backside, though not a one of them had any clue as to its purpose.

Sadao stepped forward a pace to push his way past the newcomer, but the man simply raised up the staff in his left hand, his right hand cocking back defensively. Sadao stopped in his tracks as he finally realized the man's presence, and brought both his attention, and boiling anger, to bear.

"I don't know who you are, but you either stay out of my way, or I'm going to make you regret ever being here!"

The mystery man merely stood his ground even as he lowered his guard, though he still insisted on standing defiantly between Sadao and the two female targets. He then made a huffing sound, almost like a laugh, and addressed Sadao, "You should be quite aware that it is impolite to force a lady to do something against her will."

The man's speech caught all four of his spectators by surprise. It wasn't Japanese that this now-confirmed foreigner had used, but rather what appeared to be the English language.

"Now, I want you two to leave," the foreigner continued in that same language, pointing with an outstretched finger in the direction behind the two Japanese students in front of him, "and forget that this ever happened."

If Sadao was in any type of anger before, now he was literally seething with fury. Not only had this foreigner almost shattered his wrist, but he was also now interfering with his personal activities. Ignoring the pain, Sadao pointed an injured, upturned fist at the foreigner, shouting back in Japanese, "I have no idea what you just said, but if you think that little stick is going to stop me from getting what I want, then you're going to have to find out how useless that twig really is." Grinning with confidence, Sadao pointed at the staff the foreigner held, sneering at the man to get his point across.

"Alright, my mistake. I thought you would be smart enough to at least know _some _of my words," the foreigner returned in a nonchalant tone, sighing as if the jock before him was completely hopeless. He then grinned with a confidence of his own, a move that only served to anger Sadao further, "Well, if that's the case, allow me to make my _point_ in a language you'll more easily understand."

As he spoke, the foreigner's facial features turned right around until they had become as hard as stone, his eyes matching the hawk-like gaze of Sadao with that of a raptor. Sadao, while incapable of understanding the words, easily interpreted the intent beneath the tone of the man's voice, as well as the piercing gaze that had set upon him. He placed his hands on his hips, waiting patiently to see what this foreigner – who, despite being just as tall as him, was a fair size smaller in body tone compared to himself – could possibly do to him, walking stick or not.

The foreigner's left hand rose up to beside his waist, pointing the staff's length horizontally forward towards Sadao. With his right hand, he gripped the cloth-wrapped head of the staff, and twitched his arm slightly. He watched Sadao's eyes narrow with curiosity, to which the foreigner grinned sadistically in return, and with a flourish of his entire body pulled the cloth-wrapped handle away from the main body of the staff to reveal a nearly three foot metallic blade hidden away within. In one fluidic motion, the hollowed out staff was secured onto the man's side by his belt, while his arms raised the cold-iron katana up horizontally beside his head, the sharpened tip pointed directly at Sadao's chest. Time seemed to freeze all around them as the situation took on a whole new meaning.

The two intruders quickly took off running before the foreigner could even think to step into a proper stance, and they were well out of visual range by the time he actually did. Satisfied that the two were gone for good, he pulled the hollowed-out staff back out from under his belt and replaced the length of his blade back into it. He turned about to consider the two girls behind him, meanwhile muttering to himself, "People these days... glad I was practicing nearby."

Sakura had, by now, recovered most of her composure, but was still considerably on edge, and understandably so. She noticed that the man – who, having finally turned towards her, was seemingly not all that older than herself – had started to approach them, and took up a defensive position in front of Tomoyo to protect against him. She was unsure of his intentions, and she also didn't care, as she was no longer in any mood to tempt fate again. She even went so far as to devise a way to summon her wand without him realizing it, if she was forced to.

He readily noted the girls' apprehension, however, and stopped well short of them. He knelt slowly to the ground, placing his staff-like katana below him, then spread his hands to his sides as he rose up again to show peaceful intentions. From the look of the two glares he was getting back, though, they weren't buying it. So instead, he tried another tactic, "I mean you no harm, unlike those other two. Are you both all right?"

The two girls were caught, once again, by surprise. This time, he was speaking in Japanese, and rather fluently for a foreigner. For a moment, Sakura's unease of the situation was set aside, and in its place was a strong curiosity for this mystery of a person. Someone who knew both English and Japanese, was obviously not from Japan, and walked around carrying a staff that was actually a sword.

She asked of him, "Y-you... can speak Japanese?"

The youth nodded impatiently, "Yes, I took private tutoring when I was fourteen, three years ago. Now, are you sure you two are okay?" When the two girls finally nodded in reply, he visibly relaxed, "Thank goodness. I had been practicing my swordsmanship in a nearby clearing, and came running when I heard the struggle, but I was afraid that I had arrived too late."

The question had been on her mind from the moment the foreigner had first addressed her, so Sakura just asked it outright, "Who are you, anyway? It's not every day that someone comes along swinging a sword around in public."

"Ah, heh... I thought that might catch your attention," he uttered meekly, setting an embarrassed grin to try and make himself look friendly, "Well, for starters, I suppose you could call me a travelling musician. I've just moved here from overseas, not even a month ago, and recently I took up residence with a local orchestra. The name is Reios," he threw in a low bow as he revealed his name.

Sakura and Tomoyo both returned the gesture, "Mine is Sakura Kinomoto, and this is my friend, Tomoyo Daidouji. Thank you for helping us today."

"Glad to be of help. It's people like them I can't stand, always ready to take advantage of a bad situation," he remarked, his face clouding over darkly. He quickly shook it off, though, "Anyway, you two were originally headed home, I presume?"

The two girls nodded in confirmation to his query, bringing about his next statement, "Well then, if you would like, I could... walk with you? At least until you arrive safely there. Although... I realize that this might sound similar to the offer those two hoodlums must have made, so... please, do not, uh... feel pressured to take it."

Sakura tried to stare through this Reios's deep brown eyes, attempting to discern the truth of his words. At the moment, she wasn't sure that she really wanted to trust anyone at all anymore, except for Tomoyo of course. But then, that nagging feeling that had been in the back of her mind wasn't there anymore, like it had been with those other two. This foreigner's gaze was not insistent and impatient, as Sadao's had been. If anything, it was hesitant and unsure, as if he was unwilling to step into a fragile situation. Because of this, Sakura felt, and even knew, that she could trust him. He meant no harm, and that was what mattered.

She shook her head in reply, a cheerful smile returning to her face, "No, I'd be glad to have some extra company. Right, Tomoyo?"

"Yes, of course," Tomoyo replied calmly, though more honestly, she wasn't too sure of what to trust at the moment, herself. Still, if Sakura seemed to feel certain about this man's worth, then there was little cause for her to be worrying. That didn't stop her from readying her cell phone to auto-dial her bodyguards, though.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	7. Confidant

_1-7: Confidant_

"...then the toy mouse darted out from under the couch and in through the door, and the cat poked his head out from behind the couch I was sitting on to sneak after it. I reached down to give it a small scratch behind the ears, but I ended up scaring the poor thing so much, it jumped literally five feet into the air!"

Tomoyo couldn't help but smile to herself as Sakura related the tale to their new walking companion. Sakura even went so far as to laugh at her own story, articulating the cat's acrobatic movements with her hands as she went. For as far as Tomoyo could tell, her dear friend didn't seem to be suffering any visible trauma from what had just transpired. Sakura had said that she had been hoping to make some new friends this week, and as such she seemed to be very much enjoying this Reios person's company. Even Tomoyo herself was finding his presence to be agreeable, despite that she was still feeling insecure about any intentions that he may yet be harboring. Sakura's good mood was obviously starting to rub off on her again.

"The thing is, the cat must have been at least this fat, "Sakura added, spreading her hands apart by about a fifth of a meter to measure out what looked to be a fairly sizable animal, "and he was really, _really_ old too!

Reios's mouth curved up in amusement, but it was Tomoyo who ended up asking the question, "A cat that big? Is it really possible that it had that much energy?"

Reios chuckled as he recalled something, "You wouldn't believe how much a cat could run circles around the house without tiring. Even after old age starts to set in, most will still jump on and off of anything they can possibly stand on, looking for someone to pet them. I know mine does."

Sakura suddenly turned towards a gate set to the side of the road they were traveling on, halting the conversation as they arrived at her home. She lifted the latch and opened it slightly to allow herself through, then turned to bid Tomoyo and her new friend a good night, "Well, thank you very much, again, for helping us today. If there's anything I can do to repay you, anything, just let me know!"

Reios held up his hand to stop her, "No, that's quite all right. I appreciate the offer, but I only did what was necessary. Your gratitude is enough for me."

"How about our dinner plans for tomorrow night?" Tomoyo threw in unexpectedly, which reminded Sakura that she had been invited over by Tomoyo's mother, Sonomi, for dinner the next evening.

"Hey, that's a wonderful idea! Maybe I can help with the cooking, too! How about it, want to come?" she asked excitedly, turning to Reios with an optimistic face. Reios was hesitant to the idea, however. An evening to dinner with what would hopefully become two good friends sounded great, but he also didn't want to force his presence upon them, especially considering what they had just been through. It was enough for him that they had allowed him to walk them home. To be treated as the hero, as such an event was likely to cause, would only award him with an admiration he did not need, nor deserve.

Sakura, ever polite however, took his hesitation as a decline to her offer, "Oh, but you must be busy with something tomorrow..."

"Uh, no, no, I don't have any, uh, well..." he stammered, trying to work his way out of the hole he had just wordlessly dug himself into. Chivalry be damned, but he just could not deny someone a request if they happened to be female, and a disheartened one at that. What made it worse was that he knew that he would _have_ to accept Sakura's offer now, because he would otherwise just end up making an idiot out of himself in an attempt to get out of it. Saying "no" in a direct and controlled manner was far from being one of his strong points, anyway. To that end, he replied embarrassingly, "Bah... Okay, when and where?"

That bright smile returned to Sakura's face in an instant, something that he expected he would start seeing a lot more of in the next little while. In a way, he wholeheartedly did want to attend, though he still did not want to enforce the impression that he was some kind of hero. The contradiction of desires was annoying the hell out of him. Yet this _would_ be a good way to get to know them better, he supposed. Still being relatively new in town and all, friends were something that he was sorely lacking in.

"My mother has invited Sakura to an evening dinner," Tomoyo explained, swinging her backpack around in front of her to dig through it for a leaf of paper and a pen, "It is a rare occasion that Mother has the luxury to spend her time at home, and she has not seen Sakura in quite a while, either. We plan to have it ready for around six-thirty, but feel free to show up early. I am sure that Mother would like to meet with you."

A moment of silence spanned through as Tomoyo drew a quick sketch of the bus route to take, as well as where to disembark. Accepting the leaflet from her, Reios stood there for a moment to try and memorize the route and location, thinking he knew what all the squiggles of letters meant, but finally he just pocketed the note. He would have to pull out a traveling map later to better discern the directions.

"Well then, if that's settled, I'll see you both tomorrow," Sakura noted cheerfully, her bright smile still locked into place, "Good night!"

"Good night," her two friends repeated back in unison. They stood their ground as Sakura walked up the short path to her house's front door, calling out her return as she opened it. All sound from the energetic voice was cut away as the door clicked shut behind her.

A tension began to grow in the air as the two left behind continued to stand there at the gate, both unsure of what to do, and yet both feeling that they should react to something. Just to have something to do, Reios eventually placed one hand on his hip as he drew the note back out from his left pocket, holding it between his thumb and forefinger in an attempt to, once again, discern the location that Tomoyo had just drawn. The bus route seemed somewhat familiar to him, but he eventually just gave up on it.

He turned to Tomoyo, a defeated look on his face, "Alright, you know, I'm completely terrible with street markers and addresses here. If you would like, I could see you safely home as well, and then I could just memorize the old fashioned way on how to get there."

He half-expected her to want to travel home on her own, as he had sensed a kind of mistrust from from her a few times from before, when he had directly asked her a question while they were traveling from the park. He was thus surprised when she answered without hesitation, "Sure, I don't mind. I suppose that addresses here can be a bit confusing, especially to those that are new to them."

There wasn't a speck of that mistrust in her voice, now. Her eyes also revealed no sense of reservation or fear, but instead a kind of acceptance. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that her friend, Sakura, had just taken to friendship with him so easily, but he would never really know. All the same, it made life easier knowing that he would not have to convince every single person that he wasn't out to take advantage of a bad situation. Still, the sudden change in this black-haired girl was a bit of a concern, but he could pry into that once he was more comfortable in his knowledge of his new friends.

"For starters, the nearest station for the bus route you need is actually nearby here, this way," she explained, pointing the way down the street back where they had come from. He recalled the path that was inset with cherry trees, and how it connected to the actual street for vehicles and city travel. Then he recalled a bus station sign that had the route he needed stamped onto it, and laughed at himself as he pieced together what he needed to find his way.

That still left him with not a singular clue as to what point to get off of the bus at. He sighed dejectedly to himself as he defeated his own success.

He raised his hand slightly in the direction they were to proceed in, "After you."

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

The bus rolled on after the two had disembarked, leaving them to momentarily stare at a black, iron fence that was protecting a secondary fence of tall, green hedges. He then strolled along beside Tomoyo as she led the way to her home, familiarizing himself with the terrain and land markings as they went. Having to memorize street names would just get him lost later, something that he feared would easily happen were he to later spontaneously try and find his way back to either here or Sakura's house without having any landmarks to rely on. The damned street signs in this place were just so confusing.

"By the way," Tomoyo asked suddenly, cutting into the relative silence of the springtime ambience, "I don't believe I caught your surname. I'll need to let the gate keeper know who to expect."

"I wish I could," he replied, without pause.

She stopped to turn and look at him, not quite sure that she had heard correctly. Reios soon stopped for himself a few paces further up when he noticed that Tomoyo had come to a halt. He turned to question her delay, but then realized that his comment must have sounded considerably strange.

"Er, that is... when I finally moved over here, well..." he hesitated a moment, trying to decide on how to word it, "before I left home, actually, I, uh... well, renounced... my family name."

A thousand questions swarmed unbidden into Tomoyo's head about such a circumstance, of whether this was actually true, and of how he could say it so simply. But not only did she want to leave such questions for a quieter setting, she also did not want to make him feel uncomfortable in public. Locking a few choice questions into the back of her mind, she made sure to save them for the next evening's gathering, where she could soften their meanings over a cup of tea and the company of friends.

With a soft nod to acknowledge his admittance, she started up on her way again. The gate keeper would just have to deal with it.

The veritable silence and soothing calm of nature's sounds carried on throughout their slow walk along the fence-lined sidewalk. The familiarity of this walk, which she had taken for almost every single day of her life, was enough that she could have done it in her sleep. Ultimately, it allowed Tomoyo's thoughts to begin to wander aimlessly. Her mind eventually picked up on recent events, and she once again began to reflect on the distance that was starting to build between her various friends. Tomoyo's concern flared especially for the specific one she had narrowly avoided losing merely because of simple academics, and she had no problem admitting that it was pure luck that her mother's bribe had paid off, a stroke of luck in itself that they had actually been given that chance. Then, with the day's events having unfolded as they had, Tomoyo began to worry as to whether friendship was as fragile as some people said it was.

The somber mood that was building up in the air was not lost on Reios, as he looked with a side glance at the deepening expression of gloom and loss that was building on Tomoyo's face. Eventually he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Is something wrong?" he asked of Tomoyo, snapping her out of her reverie with a shock. She had to double-check her condition just to realize that she had actually spaced out on him.

It forced her to realize that Reios was speaking out of concern for her. Which was strange, as she didn't think that he would actually want to hear about her petty problems, especially considering they had just met. That he would actually think to ask of them was, admittedly, something of a curiosity to her. But there was also something about him. An air of understanding, she guessed, that she seemed to just... identify with. How she had come to this specific conclusion about the personality of an individual she had only just met, she had not the slightest clue. All the same, she later considered that these assumptions were perhaps the reasons why she then told him what she did.

"No, not really," she started, the words emerging from her with a guarded tone, "It's just, well... have you... Have you ever had a... a best friend that you were worried about? Someone that you thought you might never see again?"

He smiled gently, guessing on where this conversation was trying to go, "I can't say that I have, directly, though I suppose leaving behind those select few I cared about counts. But what about it?"

Tomoyo took in a deep, calming breath, before continuing, "Today, at the park, before you had intervened... I came across a scene that will probably haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. The one thought – that I might never see Sakura again – had shot through my mind, and... and I was literally frozen with fear at all the possible outcomes. It was bad enough that, because of us entering high school, I had already considered that I might not be able to be around for her as much. After today's events, it just seemed so much more realistic that I could eventually lose her. What made it all the worse was this pervading feeling that I was powerless to stop it. She is my... best friend, and I don't think I could handle that."

Tomoyo suddenly realized that she was babbling quite openly about her emotions to a person that was still a practical stranger to her. She took up a tight control of her spiraling thoughts before she could say more, and gave Reios an encouraging smile, "I apologize, I've said too much. I'm sure you don't want to be hearing about my personal problems."

He shook his head, quickly waving off her apparent embarrassment, "No, no, it's all right, really. Sometimes, it's good to be able to just let go of the things that worry us the most. Besides, I'm a good listener. It's what I do. Back home, I often found myself listening to the confessions of others just because I was there _to_ listen. So, if there's something to say, then say it... such as, you're still worried about what happened today, I take it?"

Tomoyo hugged herself loosely, staring into the gray, cement ground that passed her by with each measured step. She held her tongue for a moment before continuing, "Well... I suppose I had never given any serious thought to how fragile childhood friendships could be, at least until now," she said quietly. More to herself than to him, he supposed, but he still waited and listened. Eventually she came out with another question, "Tell me, do you believe in fortune-telling, or that dreams can have meaning?"

Reios found himself surprised at the seemingly random change in topic, but it was one he was eager to pursue, "To be honest, I have actually studied about dreams and fortune-telling. Topics about the future and inner belief, the meanings of images and the subconscious, and of one's way with handling them. Among other things."

He paused a moment to consider his words, but noticed that Tomoyo had taken on slightly confused expression to her face. Or was it an intrigued expression?

"It's a slightly long story. Actually, it ties into that little bit about my surname. Something to save for tomorrow night," his eyes gleamed with the excitement of a story to tell, and she nodded in agreement to wait. There would be much to talk about, at this rate.

They turned the corner of the block and continued along the sidewalk's length, the contents of which were still fenced off and blockaded from view by an endless line of shrubbery and iron. Reios then suddenly realized that he had derailed the topic, and brought it back on track "Anyway, was there a dream that you had once had?"

Tomoyo nodded, recalling the daydream that she had had a few years ago in the local shopping district, something that she later had learned had been invoked by the then-rogue Dream card. She considered about how much to actually tell him, and picked at her words carefully, "I once had this... extremely vivid dream of how I was able to model Sakura in any costume I could think up, and for as long as I wanted. Oh, that is, some of my hobbies include dressmaking and filmmaking, in both of which I have Sakura model for me. At first I thought that this dream was a... an admittance, I guess, to how much I liked what I did, but over time... it started to feel like something else..." She trailed off after that, unsure of what else to say at that moment.

"A dream can mean several things, especially when it concerns another person or one's self," Reios interjected, speaking slowly to keep track of his own words, "and these meanings can be more intense if the dream is made to seem more real. If you think that you had a clear understanding of what that dream actually meant, especially if it was vivid and well remembered, then that is what will happen. Not only in the proverbial senses that the images may convey, but also in any situational scenarios as well."

Tomoyo furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "Situational?"

Reios crossed his arms, looking up to the early evening sky thoughtfully, "It means – by my interpretation of your dream, at least – that if you continue to want to be with Sakura, then you will be. I'm getting the feeling that the two of you are especially close to each other in the friendship department. So, by my account, she would make her best effort to equally return your desire to remain as a friend.

"My guess is that you interpreted this through your dream because that's how you were living your life back then. You kept her by your side by asking her to model for you while wearing these dresses that you made, and she returned those intentions by honoring your attempts to keep her there, likely because she also wanted to be there. Therefore, if you stick to your interpretation of the dream by each situation that it encompasses, then I suppose you could say that each new article of clothing you make keeps you together as friends that much longer. Of course, that's just taking the literal approach to interpretation."

Reios held his breath for a moment before adding with a side glance, "...did that even make any sense?"

But Tomoyo had failed to heed his final statement, for her mind had begun to race with all the possible implications of his meaning. She had never really thought of it like that before. She had originally assumed that her dream had just been an extension of her desire to see nothing but her extremely cute Sakura in equally cute costumes, nothing more and nothing less. But then, had it really all just been a way to remain close to her? Some kind of unknown, subconscious thought that had driven her, or perhaps just a simple excuse on her own part so as not to have to leave Sakura's side? After all, Kero had said that the Dream card didn't show a person just normal dreams, but that such dreams held images and information concerning the future. The card's dreams actually held important meanings that needed to be interpreted. For Reios to tell it all to her like that, as though it were fact, was completely changing her view of this world of hers.

It did little to change her base desires or resolve, however.

"Well, if that's the case, I'll just have to put some extra effort into the one I'm making right now!" Tomoyo exclaimed, suddenly seeming to hit cloud nine, "Oh! Maybe I can have it done by tomorrow night, even!" Reios found himself wondering at just how close he had been to imagining her dream, based on her description.

Just as suddenly as Tomoyo's streak of euphoria hit, it was gone again as she suddenly turned in towards the fence beside them. Except that it wasn't a fence anymore, but was rather a set of large, black gates placed between two, white-brick pillars. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed the engraved nameplate over what looked like an intercom, and how it read as the kanji symbols for what was probably Tomoyo's family name - Daidouji. Then he noticed what was beyond the gate, and went completely slack-jawed.

What little that was visible through the black, wrought iron gates was nothing short of the Garden of Eden. A large, elegant fountain was centered along the main walkway, spurting arcs of water in several directions, while thick growths of rosebush, or at least some kind of bush, grew upon multiple lengths of latices and arbors which themselves were attached to small fences of more hedges. And beyond the fountain and bushes sat one of the largest houses he had ever thought to see. Even by his North American standards, this house was close to extravagantly oversized.

"Hell, forget the gate keeper, you'd need a full security detail to guard the damn place," he muttered to himself.

"What was that?"

He caught his error after being prompted, and stood back in a slight embarrassment, realizing he had just muttered in English. Not only that, but he had used a few choice words in a civilized conversation that would have earned him a half-hour lecture back home. In a way, he was thankful he had let his control of languages slip.

"Err, no, nothing. Sorry, disregard that. I was just rather, well... surprised, I guess, at the size of this place," he stuttered out, lifting a hand in the general direction of the mansion beyond the gates, "What's with the size of the place?"

"That... we can save for tomorrow night, as well," she replied, evading his question with a glint of humor in her eye. He found himself being entrapped within his own desire for stories, and let the issue drop, bobbing his head in defeat and grinning at Tomoyo's quick wit.

"Very well. Tomorrow, then," he said, bowing slightly to her as she turned back from pressing the buzzer on the intercom. The gate snapped open slightly in response to her page, the grate of metal on metal sounding out quietly into the evening air. She nodded her head in return, and bid him a good night as he turned to walk back down the block towards the bus station they had left behind.

She grabbed onto the gate to let herself in, but stopped herself as a soft, fluttering melody began to filter in from Reios's general direction. She stepped back to locate the source of the sound, and noticed that Reios had taken to playing some sort of silver-colored instrument as he was walking away. Judging by its size, and the way he was handling it, it looked to be a flute. She guessed that he had pulled it from that black, pole-shaped bag on his back, but he had turned the corner and was gone before she could verify it. He left behind only the continuing stream of notes as he continued to play his song in the distance. At least it proved that he really was a musician.

_Another story to be told,_ she thought to herself. Finally stepping through the small opening the gate had provided, it soon pulled itself shut behind her, locking into place with an audible click.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*= =*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

_End, Chapter 1_


	8. The Dream, Revised

**Chapter 2 – Reunion   


* * *

**

_  
2-1: The Dream, Revised_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream. The same dream that she had had before, the one of darkness and shrines, of the mysterious Clow Reed, and then of yet more darkness. The ever-present fear within this place set off to consume her again.

This time, though, there was no shrine, and there were no Clow Reed either singular or multiplied. Neither images of fear nor vestiges of evil appeared to draw her away. What existed now was only the three images of the books that had appeared to her from before, her own floating there quietly among them, its pink, leather cover pulsing occasionally with the gentle light of the stars. The other two, covered away within clouds of darkness, still refused to reveal themselves. Curiosity overtook fear, and she once again stepped forward to examine them, this time looking closely at the book to the right of hers.

Her hand raised up and wafted through the shrouds of darkness that covered the book that was now hovering before her, even though she knew that the darkness was impenetrable. Except that she found her excitement to be exponentially multiplying as the darkness began to clear away with each pass of the hand that she took at it. She quickly moved about the book, wiping away the clouds of black as though they were a tangible substance, meticulously working at even the tiniest particle as though it was the entire purpose of her being. Yet when she was done, and she stood before that fully revealed book, it showed her only a leather cover to match the pitch blackness that was all around her. There were no markings along the cover, nor any kind of special feature with which to identify the purpose of this volume. Her efforts had also done nothing to reveal its pages, for the ability to actually touch the tome still eluded her. It remained only a simple, illusionary black book hovering motionless beside her own.

She raised her hand to try and wipe away the darkness again, for perhaps some of it was sticking to the book itself. It was then she noticed that there was an object in her hand – her Star Wand. Curious as to why it had suddenly appeared to her without a purpose or summons, and yet utterly enthralled by the purpose of the dream, she reached out with the wand and tapped the cover of the darkened book with it. Her arm bounced back in surprise as the wand made physical contact with the floating black book, before her entire vision was immediately engulfed in a flash of blinding white light a mere moment later.

When her vision had sufficiently recovered, she looked to the source of what had blinded her. A gasp of astonishment escaped into the infinite darkness, almost startling her to realize that the dream would now let her speak. Almost, for there was already something far more important taking up the whole of her attention.

The once-black and intangible book had changed considerably, and now looked uncannily like her own. Only that while hers was of a bright pink, this one was of a bright white. Instead of a small, blazing star on the lower part of the front cover, there was a larger, six-pointed sun centered just below an unmarked nameplate. An oval of nine tiny, unmarked circles encircled the base of that sun.

She walked her way around the book to examine it more closely, a slightly disorienting effort due to the unmoving backdrop of eternal black. Upon the backside she found inscribed a magic circle emblem, similar to Clow's and her own, except that this one held the same six-pointed sun from before in its center, positioned atop a typical tri-square pattern that filled the main circle of English-writ inscriptions. Yet instead of a moon set against the one side of the sun symbol, as was the design for Clow Reed's magic, there were instead the nine smaller circles from before, all of which were lining the inner circle. Each of the nine circles, this time, held within them what she thought were astrological symbols. She had not a single clue as to what those symbols specifically meant, though she somehow understood them to be in representation of the nine planets within the Earth's solar system.

Within a literal blink of her eye the book had spun about on her, the front cover once again facing forward. The latch on the book snapped open of its own volition, while the image of a silver key – it's bow was in the shape of a dragon's claw that was holding some kind of spherical crystal – appeared from within the keyhole momentarily before fading back into nothingness. Cautiously, she reached out for the edge of the book's cover to open it. Finding it palpable, she opened the book with a deliberate lack of haste, and turned it to the first page. There she found the pages to be fake and the book hollowed out, much like her own. Yet within the hollowed out book she found only more clouded darkness, though there came the unexplainable sense that within that darkness existed a plethora of separate entities. A thought came to her, then: Cards, perhaps?

The book snapped shut on her just as quickly as it had spun about on her, the latch closing up and locking her out. She raised a hand to try and open it again, but held herself back as a new image began to materialize before her. This new picture that she was shown, a simplistic yet polished rosewood staff, looked as though it were a part of the book, even though she knew it was just an illusion. All the same, she couldn't get it quite out of her mind that she was supposed to know what that image meant.

Her thoughts on that image led to her distraction, and before she could react against it, the books and images had vanished from view, shooting up and away into the darkness above her in a ray of trailing light. Try as she did to stop them, even will them to stay so that she might try and figure this out, they merely continued to race off into the distance. Instead, in their place, she unconsciously summoned forth another part of her dream. Something that she didn't want to remember. Something that she dared not try to remember. Yet she could not stop the flow of the dream any more than she could stop the fleeing trio of books, as the little white bird flew into view and landed gracefully before her. It was completely oblivious to the impending danger that she now knew was approaching.

The dream was starting up all over again.

The four dark orbs appeared from within the dark expanse before her and once again began to chase each other in that perfect circle, running themselves along an invisible track as they took to their spiral dance. Spinning ever faster, the vortex appeared within that circle, swirling around and about to beckon all of existence into its dark embrace. Try as it might, the little bird was once again no match for its power, and it quickly found itself being drawn into the black whirlpool. Moments more, and she found herself flying uncontrollably towards the event horizon of that vortex as well.

The closer she came to the darkness of oblivion, the more time slowed, and the more the perpetual darkness filled her vision, until even the orbs were gone from sight. She tried to scream out with the fear that had again consumed her, but found no voice to be remaining within her. She threw her weight against the raging dream-winds that sought to devour her, yet found that her feeble attempts lacking in the strength of will she required to resist the pull of the darkness. As the last of her conscience faded away, a familiar voice once again rang out through her mind, through her body, and the very air around her.

"_When the Seal on them is broken, a catastrophe will befall this world._"

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	9. Invitation to Dinner

_2-2: Invitation to Dinner_

The bus rolled on ahead after his departure, leaving him to stare after it while blocking off the glare of the early evening sun with his right hand. There was this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he hadn't remembered the arrival time correctly, but then again the bus had also taken its sweet time in making its way. These nagging feelings of his were usually wrong, by most accounts, anyway. Either that, or it was the unnatural chill in the air that was putting him on edge. Yet there was nothing to be done about it in either event, so he hefted the small, cloth-bound traveling bag that was slung over his left shoulder, tightened his belt to secure the staff-like katana strapped to his back, and proceeded along the sidewalk in the opposite direction of the now out-of-sight bus.

Even though he had already seen this part of the neighborhood before, he was nonetheless continually amazed at how big some of the houses were, to say nothing of the house that he was headed for. And there were even more awe-inspiring houses as he rounded the corner of the block. Some were built with traditional Japanese tiled roofs and whitewashed woodwork, and the designing styles went all the way down to what might have been medieval, European masonry. They were all fine examples of artistry and design in their own rights, but not a single one of them came anywhere close to matching the sheer impressiveness of the Daidouji manor. In his opinion, at least.

For some reason, he then momentarily found himself wondering about how he hadn't clued in to the size of the Daidouji manor, when he had ended up being surprised by it the previous day. More especially so, since one would have had to have taken into consideration the type of neighborhood that this was.

He then spun to his right to face the gate, and there he was at said manor. He still couldn't get over how big the "front yard" was, and only his imagination could ponder up the size of the building's interior. For a moment, he considered how much the upkeep and cleaning maintenance must cost for a place like this, but shoved the though right from his mind as quickly as it had entered. His own place was enough of a mess at the moment, and he dared not consider someone else's.

He pressed the button below the intercom speaker, causing a small buzz to emit from the white box as it signaled for whomever was working gate duty that day. A female voice took notice of him, "Yes, may I ask who this is?"

Reios offered up his name politely, and sensed an understandable hesitation as the listener awaited his surname. Yet no surname was forthcoming, and though he grew worried that he might be denied entry, the female on the other end eventually came back and asked him to wait while she released the lock on the gate. Stepping back from the intercom, he set his free right hand behind his back, made his way through the gates as they opened, and walked his way at a deliberately slow pace along the garden's main path to admire as much detail as he possibly could.

Most of the newly-revealed areas of the garden were much the same as that which he had observed from his short time the previous day: paths lined with bushes and arbors surrounding either smaller fountains or similar decorations, and even a secluded and shaded resting spot come complete with an old-fashioned picnic table. The estate grounds were at least two-thirds of a kilometer wide, and from what he could see of the building, the grounds were probably equally as long. A gardener's dream and nightmare, all in one package.

The building itself had at least as much window as it did wall, displaying an elegant, angled look all along its front side, with various balconies jutting out for each room that he could discern. The walls on the left side were lined with rosebushes and flowering vines all growing along tall latices, while the right was shaded off as a kind of porch that was enclosed within a wall of windows.

He turned about in place to check out more of the garden, but was forced to make a check against his own gawking as footsteps began to approach him from manor, turning back as he did so to greet the maid servant that was making her way towards him. As she approached, she spoke in a quiet voice of how the house mistresses were still busy preparing the evening dinner, were unable to meet with him in person, and that they had asked for him to be taken to a waiting room and made comfortable. Not one to argue with potential comfort, especially seeing as he was to be made an honored guest (a fact that made him inwardly roll his eyes), he nodded with a smile and followed the maid in through the front door.

The foyer of the manor was just as beautifully and elegantly designed as the outside, with polished marble flooring covered over with a royal-red hall rug, decorative, greek-style support pillars, and various floral arrangements set within porcelain pottery, themselves set atop stonework pedestals that sat at various points all along the beige-painted walls. And wherever there was an empty space along the wall, areas left uncovered by the myriad potted flowers, there sat an abstract or scenic painting to fill the gap. This method of furnishing easily fulfilled the role of an art museum, and that was in just this one singular room.

His eyes spotted a staircase at the end of one hall, and he wondered as to how many floors the manor might possibly have. Surely three, at the least. Perhaps four, even? Looking up to make an assessment, he found a gold-wrought chandelier hanging directly above him, fitted with what must have been diamonds, as well as other types of chain-linked, decorative gems. That bit of décor looked out of place, at least, seeing as it was large enough to have originated from a fantasy-styled castle's ball room.

A door unlatched to his left, snapping his attention back to reality. He quickly thanked the maid for her efforts, walking into the waiting room with a slight bow of his head as he passed. As he pulled the staff from the back of his belt, the maid told him that she would inform the young Ms. Daidouji of his arrival so that he may be properly greeted. He turned his head and gave the maid a grateful smile as he leaned his staff on a nearby chair, as well as taking his heavy, cloth-bound bag away from his shoulder and placing it onto the seat. Her job completed, the maid closed the door gently behind her, the latch sounding out with a soft click.

He turned back around slowly, taking the time to examine the room around him. It was slightly bland by comparison to the foyer, with only one painting and various potted plants seated atop some notably less grandiose pedestals, and three velvet, single-seater couches set around a low table. It was nonetheless an amazing display of the well-to-do, as this "lesser display" dwarfed his apartment's main room by a considerable amount. The few other rooms he had managed to look into on the way through seemed to follow a similar beige theme, with designs of sculptures and art, with pottery or plants set around to fill the gaps. Of course, this was just a simple waiting room. He was sure that most of the other rooms, by comparison, were far better suited for hosting guests.

Eventually coming to a stop at a window, he stared out into what appeared to be the the garden on the left side of the house. As he watched, a bird with dull-red feathering flew into view and rested along the edge of one of the smaller fountains, fluttering a wing into the water to bathe itself. With his eyes filled by the calming scenery of nature, he allowed his mind to wander away, flying off with that little bird as it took to the skies again, to a point that he thought he should remember. Something that was at the edge of his memory...

The doorknob rattled, ripping him back into reality. Turning to greet this new person, he came about to see a woman in a tight-set, rose-red business suit, it's color blending in sharply with that of her vibrant and short-cut, dark brown hair. She had a face that appeared more handsome than beautiful, yet all the same held a youthful exuberance that most (older) men would have died for. That didn't make her any less of a wonder, though, for the pose that she held herself in demanded a great sense of respect from anyone that was in her presence, yet at the same time allowed for a womanly grace that betrayed a hidden agility. Her eyes, a deep blue (which he noted were very close to Tomoyo's more amethyst-like eyes), also revealed a gentle nature that could only come with the experience of motherhood.

Even had he not matched the eyes, it was very easy to tell that this was Tomoyo's mother, and the head of the household, to be sure. Reios bowed in a western style with as much elegance as he could muster, "Nice to meet you. I am Reios."

The woman returned his introduction with a nod of her own, "And I am Sonomi Daidouji. Welcome," she said as she moved into the room, stepping around to half-lean against one of the unoccupied chairs, "I have heard from my daughter of what you did for her and Sakura. Turning around a situation that could have ended in disaster for the both of them, and then to also ensure the well-being of practical strangers afterwards. I must admire your sense of good will."

Reios had expected this, and shook his head in response to her words, dismissing all of the high praise, "No, please, do not make me out to be some kind of hero. I was merely in the area at the right time, and I did what I could for those in need. A mere coincidence such as that does not deserve such praise."

Sonomi practically ignored him, and pressed the issue, "Yet a hero is what you have portrayed. Thus, a hero you shall be treated as. After all, is it not the will and duty of a hero to do exactly that which you have displayed?"

Reios found himself once again being caught within a trap of words, a skill that the entire Daidouji family seemed to possess. Either that, or he hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep the previous night. Forced into a proverbial corner, he finally accepted the praise that was being awarded to him, looking away from her to avoid further embarrassment to himself as he scratched at his head. He wondered inwardly on how he allowed himself into these things, and made a mental note to watch his choice of words in the future.

A knock sounded through the nearby door, which opened moments later to reveal both Sakura and Tomoyo with a serving maid waiting behind them patiently. Acting as the hostess, Tomoyo bowed slightly in greeting, and announced, "Dinner is ready to be served. If you will follow us, the maid here will take your belongings while we eat."

Reios went on the defensive almost immediately, his peripheral vision locking intently onto his precious wooden staff. He didn't much care for being parted with it, regardless of the situation, though it was mostly because of it's truer, hidden form. Someone inadvertently discovering that form could land him in some serious hot water if he wasn't around to explain it away. But then, he realized that it was also fully a trust issue, and that he had to place his trust these people if he truly wanted to be friends with them. They were trusting him by allowing his presence – and his sword, which Tomoyo, Sakura, and likely Tomoyo's mother as well, all knew the truth about – in their home, after all.

Shaking out of his hesitation, he nodded in acceptance to the two girls and stepped off to the side as the maid entered and collected his belongings. Once those were removed, he was ushered back out of the room by Sonomi, falling in step with the four ladies as they made their way back through the manor's foyer.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

Sakura shifted the spoon slightly to the side to remove the blinding glare from the lights of the chandelier above, and poked her fork into a few leafs of salad. Originally, such a thing wouldn't have bothered her so much. but as she had continued to grow, and as her inner powers had grown alongside her, both her clairvoyant and physical senses had also increased in awareness until she had finally started noticing a heightened sensitivity for light, and that the food she ate tasted far better than it normally would. And that was just for starters.

Sakura, as she had practiced and learned as Kero's (and sometimes as Eriol's) student, had learned to more accurately utilize her enhanced senses, as well as to access her sixth sense more easily. Without looking up from her dinner plate, she could now easily see the entire room around her: a long and narrow dining room brightly lit with artificial lighting from the chandelier above her, and a thin but cheerful evening light pouring in from the east-facing window. Her current, downward-facing visual angle made it slightly difficult to make out the two paintings that decorated the wall before her, yet through her enhanced senses, she could more than easily make out the one hanging directly opposite of her with just her peripheral vision: a depiction of a woman in flowing robes standing valiantly against a cruel and powerful windstorm.

Noticing that she had stalled her eating just to reminisce on her teachings, she raised her fork to her mouth before anyone could think to question her on it.

The four of them had been discussing various stories of the past over the course of their evening dinner (a spicy Italian-style pasta with a cool-dressed salad to balance the flavor – Tomoyo's most recent specialty), and had come to learn that Reios was indeed from overseas. Originally from somewhere within Canadian borders, it seemed, though he hadn't exactly specified any further on it. Beyond that, and revealing that he had always held a passionate interest in the arts and culture of Japan, he had actually managed to remain rather quiet throughout the whole of the dinner.

Sakura wondered to herself about why Tomoyo had failed to ask the few questions that she had said had been weighing on her mind since the previous day. From what little Tomoyo had mentioned of her walk home with their newest friend, Sakura thought that perhaps she was waiting for an even more privatized setting than this? What could be so important that Tomoyo could not ask something of him in front of her own mother? Still, it left Sakura just a little bit disheartened that she had learned so very little about him, but in the long run it was of little consequence. There was plenty enough of an evening left to them, and she was sure that Tomoyo would find an opportunity to voice her inquiries at some point.

Before long, their plates were cleaned of the food that Tomoyo and Sakura had helped to prepare. Reios, having said so little all evening, surprised them as the first to speak, "This pasta was delicious – Italian, right? I admit, I'm not one for spicy foods, but this was amazing. By any standard."

"He's right, it was great," Sakura added, jumping onto the proverbial bandwagon, "Tomoyo, you really can make anything, can't you?"

Tomoyo attempted to restrain her excitement at receiving such high praise from Sakura, let alone the entire room, but she still couldn't stop herself from blushing slightly. A slight smile managed to break through, as she replied in a somewhat humble tone, "It's a simple enough recipe. Nothing special on my part, honestly."

"No, it was wonderful! I probably would have made it _too_ spicy, if it had been just me making it," Sakura exclaimed, refuting Tomoyo's attempt at modesty. She wasn't about to let Tomoyo back out of this one, it seemed.

Sonomi smiled as Sakura continued to press the case, her head resting atop a pair of folded hands as she watched the two girls go back and forth with one another. That smile soon gave way to a slight scowl as a maid made to approach, and not surprisingly with a cordless phone in her hands. The rest of the diners watched quietly as Sonomi muttered into it, her mood growing increasingly agitated as she went. But of course the main office would call her up! Now, of all possible times, stating that they urgently required her professional expertise most specifically on her day off. She would have been more than just "agitated" had she not fully expected it.

After returning the phone to the maid, she stood up to depart, breaking off any potential for further rounds of talks, "Well, as much as I would like to continue to get to know your new friend better, I, unfortunately, have business to attend to. I'm sure we'll have more chances to talk in the future, however."

She nodded politely to Reios as she turned to leave, but with an intensity in her eyes that said more to him visually than she had verbally. He knew by that gaze that she still wanted to say thank you for having saved the two girls. He nodded back equally, mentally thanking her in turn for choosing not to embarrass him in front of them.

The three of them departed the dining room, with Sonomi leaving them a short remark of gratitude for their company and dinner as she made her way down a hallway to wherever it was that her home office was located. Tomoyo then offered that they move to a more comfortable setting, and raised a hand to point the way down further into another corridor and towards a set of wide, rosewood-banister stairs.

She started up the first step, but turned back about as she thought of something, "Oh, we should bring up something to settle the night with. Maybe some tea? Apparently the head chef managed to acquire this amazing, flavored-type tea. You two go on ahead, I'll go get some!"

"Wait, I'll go with you," Sakura cut in, stopping Tomoyo before she could depart, "It's too much to carry all that, and I imagine we'll want to bring up some desert, too. Let me help."

Tomoyo didn't really want to ask Reios to find his own way around, yet fortune smiled upon her as a maid crossed their path. Stopping her, Tomoyo asked the servant to direct Reios to her room, while Sakura and herself returned to the kitchens to collect a desert tray for themselves.

Before he could even put a single thought into offering to help them, he was being led away by that servant, up the stairs and towards whichever of the various doors lead to Tomoyo's room. As if to deny the use of so much house space, it actually ended up being the first door on their right just after cresting the second floor.

The maid twisted the door knob for him and beckoned him inside, though he instead chose to hold his place for a moment. He felt a twinge of hesitation about having to lounge around within a girl's room, especially if they weren't around. But he then shook off his childish thoughts as best he could, realizing instead that he would be better off to act his own age. He was a guest (of honor, he joked), not a date, and he certainly didn't want to seem ungrateful for anything they had offered to him thus far. Sighing inwardly, he thanked the maid for her services, and stepped through the door that she had opened for him.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	10. Tea and Sweets

_2-3a: Tea and Sweets_

Sakura balanced the tray of strawberry shortcake carefully onto one hand, hers being the lighter of the two trays that she and Tomoyo carried, and opened the door to Tomoyo's room to find Reios seated on the window-side couch. He was studying what appeared to be a large, leather bound book, and hadn't noticed them entering the room. She kicked the door shut with her foot after Tomoyo had passed through, its resounding thud actually serving to gain his attention this time. Looking up to his two hostesses, Reios set aside his book and looked to them with a somewhat incredulous grin.

"You know, I would have been more than happy to help with that."

Tomoyo placed her tray of tea and cups carefully onto the small black table, looking over to him as she knelt down to arrange them, "You're a guest, and a special one at that. It is not proper for a guest to help with the preparations."

"I didn't do anything overly special, it's just that..." he repeated, for what felt like was the hundredth time, but he hesitated on his words as he realized that he wasn't going to win this one. No matter how many times he tried to get out of being the hero, he knew that there was just no getting through to these people. He also realized that if he kept up the denial, before long his tone would become insistent, and he didn't want to come off as rude. Besides, he got the feeling that these people were far too attached to each other to take this matter lightly, as he supposed best friends should be. He sighed dejectedly, tossing the idea of further resistance out the proverbial window, "Oh, forget it."

"Good," Tomoyo chirped, happy to see that she had been proven right, "Do you take anything with your tea?"

"Oh, uh, nothing, please," he replied, sitting upright to better pay attention to the two before him. Yet as he repositioned himself, the book he had placed on the couch cushion beside him came more clearly into Sakura's field of view. She looked to it curiously as she knelt down to place her own tray onto the table, wondering at what had taken Reios's interest so keenly that he had failed to notice them entering the room. She noted that it had a white, leather cover, with some kind of gold-colored workings along the spine and front.

"Oh, I brought a small something of my own, in return for inviting me tonight," Reios noted, indicating a pair of white cloth bags that were sitting on top of the table, "Scotch mints that I had taken with me when I left home."

Tomoyo and Reios both snapped up with a start as the tray that Sakura had been carrying dropped from her hands, clattering hard to the table as it crashed down from the fall. Having almost placed it completely to the table, Sakura managed not to break anything, but her bug-eyed, deadlocked gaze told them both that she wasn't really paying attention to that at the moment. They stared at her with confused expressions as her facial features started to show signs of concern and wonder. Tomoyo felt an extra concern on her own part, for she was sure that she could detect a thread of fear running through Sakura's eyes as well.

Tomoyo's gaze followed her friend's stare towards Reios, and then to the book that currently laid beside him. She recognized it almost immediately by its size and design, though the coloring and the few symbols that she could see were completely different.

"That's..." Tomoyo started, attempting to put some words to the mystery that Sakura had found herself unable to speak. Sakura's mouth was still trying to work up some form of noise, to voice the question that she so much needed to ask, only to have a thin stream of bewilderment fly out of her instead. All she could do was stare at the book before her, watching in either wonder or horror – of the two, Tomoyo wasn't sure which was the most prevalent – as her dreams started to break through into reality.

Reios was about to try and retract his gift, thinking that there was something about mints that Sakura didn't like, until he realized that they were both staring at the book that he had just placed beside him. He picked it up and examined it again for a moment before looking up to her, "What, this? I found it just last night, actually. Or... rather, it found me, I guess? I remember you mentioning yesterday that your father was an archeologist. Thinking that he might be able to better identify it, I brought it along with me."

Sakura straightened up and pointed cautiously at the book that he held, "Where... did you get that?" she asked.

"That's the strange part about it all... though you'd probably think that I was insane if I told you," he muttered, raising an eyebrow at the book he held.

"Please," was all Sakura could say, though she said it insistently enough that Reios got the message.

Looking down to the book, he lost himself in memory as he recalled the previous night, "Well... it was around ten o'clock or so last night. I was sitting outside on my apartment balcony doing some practice routines on my flute, when I noticed some kind of light moving across the sky. It almost looked to be like a shooting star, except that it was moving far too slowly for that to be right. It didn't burn away after a time, either, as one would think most do.

"It continued to trace a straight path through the sky until it slowed to hover just over the horizon. But then it just settled there, not moving onwards any further than that. I stood up to try and get a better view of it, which was when I noticed that it wasn't hovering on the horizon at all, but that it was hovering just beyond the edge of the balcony. I tried to reach out for it, but ended up stumbling backwards and into the adjacent room when it surprised me with a bright flash of light. And then, when I could see again, this," he held up the white book, "was sitting on the ground nearby me.

He hesitated for a second, before adding, "That must sound crazy, right?"

Sakura was visibly stunned. Everything Reios had just described was a decently close match to what her dreams had shown her, and it had her wondering about just how much of her dream was to be realized. A star shooting through the night sky, a blinding flash of light, and the appearance of a white book. It was all out of order, granted, but who cared?

"May I see it?" she asked, stretching her hand out slowly. Reios wasn't exactly sure of what she was so afraid of, but that was no reason to deny her the request. He held up the book for her to take, which she claimed after a notable stretch of hesitation.

She turned the book about in every which way, examining both the front cover and the back, and what she saw only confirmed those related parts of her dream. The magic circle inscribed onto the back cover, and the blazing sun with the nine, orbiting circles on the front, they were all there. It was all as she remembered. Even the nameplate, which on her own book had her name engraved in Roman lettering, was blank, just like the dream. All that was left was for the varied illusionary images to start flying out at her.

A thought suddenly struck her, causing her head to snap up and made a quick scan of the room. Spotting Reios's belongings stacked into a corner, she made a visual check, cross-referenced it with her memory, and found a match. The reddish-brown staff that he always carried around with him, the one that hid within it a bladed edge, was a close if not exact match to the image that had jumped out at her from the dream-book's front cover.

But that was not the only image that had appeared to her. There was also the silver object that looked like a hand (or had it been a claw?), the one that was holding some kind of crystal. It had floated out of the latch that had kept the book sealed, releasing the lock within the latch and revealing the presence of some form of collective entities within the book's pages. And even though the dream had never really specified as to the purpose of them, she had the distinct feeling that those entities were very similar to her own Sakura Cards.

On a whim, she set the book in the crook of her right arm and tried to free the latch with her left hand, pulling gently at first and then with a greater force when it refused to release. She grunted with an effort as she tried for a third time, but still it was to no avail.

Reios leaned forward, his elbows resting upon his knees, watching Sakura intently to see if she could open it. After she had given up, he noted, "I tried that myself, though I gave it a shot with a small crowbar on my third attempt. That didn't work either."

She ultimately tossed aside the idea of opening it by force after hearing that, flexing her hand to release the tension that had built up from the effort of straining against the lock of the book. Looking up to return the book to Reios's possession, she stopped her arm halfway as she spotted a thin, silvery snake chain peeking out from underneath the collar of his dark-gray shirt. It might not have meant anything to her before, but things were matching up much too closely to be able to continue on as a mere coincidence. She retracted her arm, and instead moved to take a seat beside him.

She looked over to Tomoyo, who had moved to sit in her favorite chair at the end of the table, hoping to find the idea that always seemed to come from her best friend at the right moment. Yet those purple eyes were sadly showing nothing short of confusion, and she knew that she was on her own to figure this out. This was going to be a very long night...

Taking in a calming breath, Sakura finally handed over the book before asking, "That necklace you're wearing... what's on it?"

"What, this?" he asked, and pulled the silver length out from under his shirt. What soon came into view only confirmed what Sakura had originally suspected. Hanging upon the chain was a small silver pendant, of what she could now clearly see was a dragon's claw tightly grasping a crystalline orb. The entire pendant was a fair size smaller than her own key that she wore around her neck, and it wasn't an actual key like her dreams had shown her (it was lacking the small key shaft and the dragon-like pair of teeth), but it was close enough.

"Do you want to see this, too?" he asked, finally sensing that something was up. He was beginning to suspect that Sakura, or perhaps even the both of them, knew what was going on with how his new book had just suddenly appeared to him as though by magic. When Sakura nodded slowly, he reached behind his neck to release the catch on the chain, and being careful not to accidentally release the ends of the chain from his fingers, held the pendant up for her to take.

She held out her hand and scooped the silver pendant out of the air where it hung, and started in fright as the world around her instantly went pitch black. Moments later it was replaced with the more familiar environment of stars and nebulae. Not even a support for sitting down was left behind her, which was when she realized that she was already standing on her feet. She didn't even remember getting up.

The existence of outer space was all around her, but she knew very well where this was. It was an environment that she had experienced twice before, a dream world reserved exclusively for spiritual meetings.

"Alright, this is getting a bit creepy."

The English language was still mostly indecipherable to her, but Sakura still recognized both it and the voice. Reios, for whatever reason, was within this dream-like space with her. But if Reios was here, then...

"Tomoyo!" she cried out into the distance, straining her ears for a familiar reply. Yet nothing returned to her except for the sounds of their own quiet breathing. Not even the expected echoes of her shouting managed to return to her. She called out again, louder and with more effort, but again she came to the same result.

"We were just in her room, sitting on the sofa, and I hand you my pendant," Reios muttered to himself, though he was speaking again in words that she could understand, "and then suddenly we're... in outer space? With the ability to breathe, no less."

His pendant... Sakura realized that she was still holding onto his pendant, and she was clenching it rather tightly within her fist at that. She forced her hand to relax its grip, and opened her hand to return the pendant back to him.

_Breaker of seals, he before you guards the morning and the dawn. Release the light..._

The two of them looked up instinctively, both attempting to trace the voice that had suddenly poured down upon them. It was definitely that of a male, a light and melodic tone that seemed to just float all through the infinite space around them. Gentle in form, yet with a strength that neither could ignore.

"Who's there?" Sakura called out into the backdrop of stars and gas clouds, yet her cries for a response from the unfamiliar voice went as unanswered as her calls for Tomoyo had been.

"That voice... Gr–... no, it couldn't be him..."

She turned to Reios, who had a look of wonder upon his face. Yet confusion was also evident in his features, as his eyes continuously scanned the universe all around him. He spun about without warning, trying to catch the unknown voice off guard, perhaps to find it hiding behind some kind of illusion or trick of mirrors. It was obvious enough to her that he had recognized that voice, though once again he had spoken in English. If he had mentioned anything of its identity just now, she wouldn't have understood it anyway.

_Power of the Stars, unite yourself with those that hold the balance. Release the light..._

This time, it was Sakura's turn to stand in amazement, looking back up into the stars above as a second voice washed over them. She easily knew that one. The deep-toned, kind and all-knowing voice, the same one that had haunted her and encouraged her ever since she had defeated Yue at the Final Judgement. It was Clow Reed himself, and suddenly she half-expected him to just materialize out of nowhere to offer up some cryptic advice on what was going on.

"Clow..."

"It looks like you knew that one..." Reios commented, noticing that Sakura had gone stock still when the second voice had resounded through the starry field they inhabited, "Clow, huh?"

_Release the light..._

Both of the voices sounded out together, marking their request in a single, unified call. Sakura got the feeling that whatever it was that they wanted, it had something to do with Reios, or else he wouldn't have been taken into this dream-world with her. They had asked for her to "release the light," yet how was she supposed to do that when she had no idea of where, or what, this light was? She had no idea of what she had to do, or of what she _could _do for that matter, to release it. To make things worse, did she really have to reveal the existence of her magic to Reios, here and now?

_Release the light..._

She stopped her swirling thoughts before they could spiral themselves out of control, and instead concentrated on her past experiences. Whenever she had been made to do things before that she had had no idea of what to actually do, her own powers had seemed to guide her thoughts and actions. It was as if all the knowledge that she would ever require was imbedded within her very soul. Taking that to heart, she closed her eyes and allowed her heart and mind to guide her along the path she needed to take.

Disregarding her previous fears of having her magical abilities discovered, she began to chant, "Energies hiding beneath the seal..."

Reios stepped back reflexively as his pendant started to glow within Sakura's upheld hand. He gasped aloud as the pendant then flew away from her hand of its own volition, sliding free of the silver chain that had originally held it. He shook his head in denial, trying not to believe what his eyes were now showing to him.

"Now discard your chain and shackle, and awaken to he whom seeks your favor!"

A wave of visible energy shot out from the floating pendant, causing Reios to go on the defensive as he reached to his side for a weapon that was not there. _What the hell is going on!?_

"Guidance of the stars, break free from imprisonment this newborn power...

"Release!"

Sakura's magic circle, the symbol of magic that she had inherited from Clow Reed, and recreated by the power of her own Stars, flared into being beneath her. Her inner energies soon began working tirelessly to unbind the seal that had been placed within the silver pendant that was now floating before her. Though she barely understood the workings of what she saw through her mind's eye, she witnessed as her power pierced through the magical barriers placed within the crystalline orb, utterly shattering the lock that had held the power of the pendant in place. Again a wave of visible energy shot forth from the pendant between them, but this time it brought with it a lasting radiance as powerful as the sun itself.

Surrounded as she was within the strength and protection of her Stars, Sakura felt and saw nothing. But as the world began to whitewash all around them, Reios found himself being absorbed into a searing light that was sending waves after waves of scorching heat into every pore in his body. He would have cried out in agony for all the sheer pain that he felt, except that his mind somehow never registered any sensation of pain at all. Instead, there was only the realization of something far greater...

_Breaker of the seal, guide the Light onto the path towards the dawn...._

The first voice that had sounded out, the one with the light and melodic tone, trailed along after them even as all awareness began to fade away.


	11. Books and Keys

_2-3b: Books and Keys_

_Breaker of the seal, guide the Light onto the path towards the dawn...._

The first voice that had sounded out, the one with the light and melodic tone, trailed along after them even as all awareness began to fade away.

And as abruptly as their conscious minds had been snatched away from them, they just as easily regained their senses to find themselves once again within Tomoyo's room. The two of them blinked several times each, adjusting themselves to the sudden change in environments. Sakura made to step forward, only to find herself still sitting upon the sofa by the window where she had originally been.

"What happened?" Tomoyo asked quietly, with more than just a hint of worry within her voice. When she received only a pair of puzzled looks, she continued, "When you took the pendant from him, it was as if the both of you were suddenly hypnotized. Your eyes went blank, and you wouldn't respond to me at all. I was almost ready to call a doctor."

Tomoyo's worrisome state started to edge in on Sakura, which was evident in her voice when she asked, "How long... have I been...?"

Tomoyo took a quick glance at the watch on her wrist, "I think, almost six minutes now?"

"Well, that puts a name to the person, at least," Reios muttered quietly to himself.

Feelings of curiosity abound, it came as no surprise that both of the girls then looked to him with equally confused expressions. So he clarified his words, "That Clow person that you mentioned... the voice that you recognized? It was the same one that this guy was using in the dream that I had experienced just last night, after getting this book. He was telling me about this ancient adversary of the stars, or some such. I almost made mention of it after you started asking all of those questions, but at the time it just seemed so silly. Now, though, I'm not so sure..."

Sakura almost went slack-jawed after hearing that. That Reios had potentially experienced the same dream as herself only made it even more apparent to her that something important was going on, and that the both of them were somehow involved in it. But then, there had been three books from her dream, hadn't there? So who did the third one belong to?

"So, any idea of what just happened?" Reios asked, looking between the two girls and watching to see if they knew something that he didn't, "What was with the light show?"

That question drew Sakura away from her current thoughts, and she shook her head to indicate that she was as clueless as he, though he didn't really seem to buy it. She shifted her posture to gaze around the room in a vain attempt for answers, which made her realize that she was still holding his silver pendant tightly in her fist.

Once again, she held out the pendant to return it to its rightful owner, "Oh, here. You probably want this back."

The pendant fell away from her hand, hanging by the looped length of snake chain that she held between her fingers, and a collective silence gathered in the room. The changes were instantly noticeable. The orb-set dragon's claw had gained a small, extended stretch of a silver shaft about the length of her fingernail. It jutted out from the "wrist" of the dragon's claw, the chain piercing its way through the tip of the shaft instead of holding it from a wireframe loop that had originally been set into that very same wrist. What was more, two small protrusions, one slightly larger and longer than the other, extended out from the end of the shaft like a pair of teeth on a key, except that these teeth looked like something out of a dragon's mouth.

There was no mistaking what she had done, however she had done it. Sakura had somehow turned Reios's pendant into a magical key, and it was all too similar to her own in both size and shape. It was now also completely identical to the one from her dream, for that matter.

Despite all of the impossibilities that he had seen and experienced in just the last few minutes, Reios still attempted to take all of this in stride. Accepting the pendant back from Sakura, he examined it for himself, finding differences in that pendant which told his mind that this was surely not his property. For one thing, it was now almost half again as big as it had been previously, to say nothing of the protruding teeth and extra length of silver. To him, it almost looked like a kind of key, the type that mythical wizards would have carried around with them for one reason or another. Surely, this was a completely different object than what he had given over to Sakura.

And yet, at the same time, there was this strange familiarity that was lingering within and around it that told his heart that it was definitely his. The conflict of knowledge was driving him nuts.

"Alright, I'm completely lost now," he remarked, glancing back and forth again between Sakura and Tomoyo to check for any further reactions. Sakura looked to Tomoyo for any potential suggestions, and saw something akin to resignation within her friend's expression. Sakura pretty much knew what Tomoyo thought needed to happen, and she knew that Tomoyo was right. Nodding to herself, she rose up and stepped away wordlessly, ducking her way in through the blue curtains at the far end of the room to make her way up the stairs and to her stashed belongings.

While they waited, Reios looked over at Tomoyo to try and see if he could detect something out of her. Perhaps the two were hiding something from him, though he couldn't bring himself to believe that it would be for a malicious purpose. Tomoyo noticed him watching her and turned to look back at him with a somewhat hesitant expression. He raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously, but otherwise said nothing of it.

"Sorry for the wait," Sakura's voice called softly from beyond the curtains, through which she appeared moments later. In her arms was a pink-colored book, similar in size to Reios's white one, with similar golden circles and emblems engraved onto it. He noted the resemblance almost immediately.

"Okay, this stopped being a coincidence a long time ago, but now it's just getting ridiculous," he said, crossing his arms over his chest in disbelief.

"That was his favorite saying, from what I'm told," Sakura told him, closing the gap and stopping about a meter away from the couch that he was sitting on, "that there is no coincidence in this world. There is only necessity; inevitability."

"His?" he muttered, still as yet trying to sort out all of the pieces that had so far failed to fall into place, "You mean this Clow person that you mentioned?"

Sakura nodded slowly, her eyes closing as she took in yet another deep, calming breath. It was time to reveal everything she knew, and everything she was.

"His full name... is Clow Reed. He lived a very long time ago, though I'm not exactly sure of when. In his time, he was considered one of the greatest sorcerers in the world, and those that knew him say that he _was_ and still _is_ the greatest to this day. He was the one who created the Clow Cards, magical, creature-like spell forms that exist as simple tarot cards when they're not being used, and they are kept sealed away within this book during that time. Except that, because I inherited their power from him, I was required to change them all into new "Sakura Cards" so that they would draw from my magic instead of the diminishing energies that Clow had left behind. It's why this book now has my name on it, instead of his. Originally, the book had been red in color, and had Clow Reed's name and magic circle inscribed upon it."

Purposefully ignoring the fact that Reios now looked even more hopelessly lost than before, for fear that he would question her sanity if given the chance and subsequently cause her to lose her nerves, Sakura snapped open the latch on her book and placed it onto the table with the cover open so that Reios could see the contents within its hollowed-out pages more easily, "In short, I can use magic by utilizing the power of these cards. All of the cards, fifty-three in total, each have their own personality and abilities. Each one is unique in its own way. Their powers range from manipulating basic elements to turning your afternoon meal into a super-sweet desert."

She lifted out the first few cards of the deck and examined them, smiling to herself as she silently greeted her friends. Even though she had seen them just a few days ago, it felt like it had been an eternity since she had last opened the book. Flipping through the few cards that she had pulled out (that is to say, the Windy, Jump, Wood, Fly, Firey, and Mirror cards), she reveled in the warmth of their magic for just a moment more before handing them over to Reios for his own examination.

While he eyed each one thoroughly, she continued, "Out of all the cards, if I had to play favorites, I would say that these six are the closest to me. Though that's not exactly the real truth, because really, I love all of the cards as equally as I would my family. They're... kind of like children to me."

Reios shuffled through the six cards that he held, then asked, "And these cards... if they have their own personalities, can I assume that they have some sort of physical form, like a summoned entity? Or do you only utilize the powers that they grant?"

Sakura cupped her hands behind her back as she continued her lecture, at the same time feeling partially relieved that Reios seemingly didn't think of her as crazy, "They do all have a physical form, yes, but they can also act as just a presence of a sort, depending on how they're used. Typically, how they are pictured on the card itself is the representation of their true physical forms. It's also possible to invoke just their powers only, but I usually let the cards do things their own way. I like to believe that they were given their own free will for a reason."

"Alright... so, how do you use them?"

She had known from the start that such a question would eventually be forthcoming, but she still hadn't been mentally prepared for it. Answering it meant revealing all of her deepest secrets to someone she had only known for a little under two days, friend or not. Still, she had gone this far, and it was fairly obvious by now that he was involved in something that was related to her and Clow Reed. There was no sense in holding anything back.

"Well..." she said, hesitating for a moment more before gathering her resolve, "that's the interesting part." Reaching to her neck, she grabbed the two sides of the leather string that held her key in place and pulled it out from underneath her shirt, slipping it over her head to hold it out on display.

"Another pendant?" he asked incredulously, examining the pink, winged, star-set key and noting the similarities to his own pendant, "And I suppose you use that to control these cards?"

Sakura shook her head, "No, not exactly... well, just watch and see," she said, moving away from the grouped furniture set and into a more open area of the room.

"Oh, wait just a moment!" Tomoyo exclaimed, dashing up and around her chair and through the curtains at the back of the room before either of her two guests could even react. They could both hear the soft thumping of her steps as she swiftly ascended a staircase, and again moments later as she made her way back down. Sakura started to wonder whether Tomoyo had gone to retrieve– and then the dark-haired girl shot back through the curtains that she had disappeared behind just seconds before, holding a small video camera in her hands.

"Let me guess... can't miss a single shot?" she asked Tomoyo, trying to force a genuine smile but failing horribly at it.

"I could never forgive myself if I let even a single chance to record your greatness slip by!" her friend replied, and already she was in the process of recording Sakura's every action, "It makes me wish I could have recorded that lesson you just gave us!"

"H-hoe..." Sakura stuttered, though she realized that she should have known this would happen. Even Reios didn't seem very surprised, though his facial expression was still a questioning one. Some things just never changed.

_Might as well make this look good, then_, Sakura thought to herself, setting her mind and body into the familiar thoughts and stance that she would require for the spell.

"Key that hides the power of the Stars..."

The key floated itself away from her as she began her incantation, her hands dropping below the key in supplication as it began to glow in a soft light, which Reios realized was exactly what his pendant had done back in that strange space-world. The only difference was that this other pendant was radiating with a stronger aura than his had.

"Show your true form before me!"

He shot up from the couch in reaction to the glowing circle that had instantaneously appeared on the floor beneath her, the same circle that had appeared in that space-world from before. It was then that the realization finally hit him that he was witnessing the use of real magical power.

"I, Sakura, command you under our contract..."

Her hands raised up, focusing together the energy that was starting to surround and infuse her.

"Release!"

An immense aura of energy began to form all around her, its residual energies whirling their way around and through the room, responding to the power that Sakura had invoked as she shot her arms down then wide to summon the magic. The strange part of it all was that Reios was actually able to sense, even almost see that aura spiraling throughout the room. The waves and wisps of magic eventually focused in on Sakura's key, which was now enveloped within a sphere of impenetrable light. It was spinning itself around and around within that sphere, turning about wildly in all sorts of random directions. Reios risked his fears, all to have a better look, and took a few steps closer. He soon retraced those steps quickly as the key suddenly stopped spinning, growing longer and longer until it had transformed into a wing-tipped, star-set wand that was just under a meter in length.

With a face set in determination to control the magic that was weaving itself all around her, Sakura raised up her hand and snatched the wand out of the air forcefully, spinning it around her in a circle as though it were a baton before coming to a stop in her final pose, her hands resting one atop the other. Relaxing herself from the built-up tension, Sakura smiled for the camera, then turned to fully display the transformed wand, "_This_ is what I use to control the cards."

Reios took up and stared at his own pendant – key? – and wondered if everything that he had been shown thus far was meant to teach him how to do the same thing. After all, those voices that they had heard had asked Sakura to do just that. Yet he knew that he was no magician, considering he had had trouble enough mastering even simple parlor tricks. Of course, everything he had just witnessed had blown such parlor tricks completely out of the water, which made it all the more difficult to believe that he now possessed such an ability as well.

Eventually finding his way back to the couch, he meanwhile muttered to himself, "Through all of my studies... this is easily the complete opposite of what I would have expected."

"Your studies?" Tomoyo asked, somewhat surprised that he was taking all of this in so easily. Then again, she had to remember that she had learned about the existence of magic starting with what looked like a toy animal flying out at her from a schoolbag, and she hadn't even flinched.

"What did you study?" she continued, completing her question.

"Generally speaking," he started, gesturing to the two books on the table, "all of this. Ever since I was little, I was enthralled by the thought of magic, of powers beyond normal human ability and comprehension. Thoughts generated by the then-recent passing of my grandmother, mind you. At the time, I had thought that if I could somehow learn how to use a power that no one else could, then maybe I could find a way to meet with her again? The delusional world of a child who could not possibly know better, perhaps, but in that world... it seemed so possible.

"However, my grandfather, who was all that was left to take care of me afterwards, was an inveterate worshipper of the Christian faith. He ended up wanting to have nothing to do with anything about me because of it, and for a time, we grew distant, never speaking. And when we did speak, it was often a lion's contest of roars and shouting. In the end, we both saw fit to maintain just enough of a relationship to keep our lives in one piece, just enough to barely tolerate each other's presence. Heh, actually, the one of a few times I can remember us being truly civil with one another was when he gave me my pendant, a few months before my eleventh birthday. Said it was a family heirloom that my father had entrusted to me through his will."

Reios noted the distressed, almost horrified look that had grown onto Sakura's face, and intervened before she could comment, "And before you go and say that you're sorry to hear of it, don't be. I'm not, and I'm quite certain that my grandfather never was." The resulting expression on Sakura's face clearly said that she didn't believe him, so he eased off the topic.

"Anyway, the only thing that had kept me going was the thought of my studies of magic, with the chance to see my grandmother again at stake. On continuous trips to the school and town libraries, I was always reading into books on tarot cards and fortune telling, prophecy, spirit and energy manipulation, the powers of the human mind. Anything with a connection to supernatural ability, really. It went on for so long that, at some point, it all became simply for the sake of learning, and my grandmother had been completely forgotten. My grandfather was happy, as he saw this as me finally accepting her death, though he still couldn't get over the fact that I had continued in my personal studies regardless.

"Eventually, I came upon a scientific study on the uses and benefits of meditation. One thing lead to another, and before long I had found myself enlisted under the private tutelage of a martial arts Iaido instructor. That, in turn, lead me to look into the land and culture of Japan. At first, my grandfather was practically ecstatic that I was taking up a more 'worthwhile' pursuit, but when he learned that it was _still _all about me wanting to know more about the supernatural, that was when we had our final... err, 'falling out'. But whatever, I don't want to go too far off-topic.

With an added thought, he glanced over to Tomoyo, "On the side, at least you know my background story now, so I hope that answers anything you probably wanted to ask. But at any rate, it suffices to say that most of my childhood, when I was not dealing with school or public engagements, was aimed towards the study of these so-called supernatural powers. But even so, to have everything I had ever learned and read about come together in one single day to prove everything right... completely _different_, but right."

He reached forward and picked up his white book to look it over again, trying to sort the pieces together, though it was more so to ignore the pitying glances that he was still receiving from his audience. One by one, all of the pieces were slowly starting to fall into place, but it still left him completely confused, and mostly for the one single question: why him? Why not someone who would have known what they were doing?

As he passed his hands over the cover, idly feeling the engravings and leather bindings, he noticed that the nameplate was no longer blank. It now had his name carved upon it in Roman lettering, just like Sakura's.

"Well at least my name's on the book now, so that verifies _something_," he noted, surprising himself with how collected he had sounded it. It felt like he was going to snap at any second, and having had to have remembered his past – despite that he had done so willingly – wasn't helping, "But what's inside if it though? More cards like yours, maybe?"

Sakura merely shrugged, shaking her head slightly to show a lack of understanding, "I don't know what would be in there. It's possible that there are more cards, or maybe just instructions on how to make your own. Maybe not even cards at all, but some kind of new power that has never been seen before. I can sense... something, in there... but I can't fully tell what it is. We won't really know until we get it open."

As she was talking, he started unconsciously playing with the latch on the book again, seeing if it had in some way loosened during their talks. Yet it came as no surprise that it was still fastened securely to the front cover. A surge of rage shot through him as he suddenly tried to rip it right off, without any concern of risking damage to the book, yet the thick leather ribbon easily held its place, and the lock within the latch did not even shift, let alone loosen or release.

"It would be nice if we could actually open it in the first place," he muttered testily, lifting his new key up as an idea came to him, but he tossed the thought away after a moment of consideration. He had thought that perhaps, since his pendant was now like a key, that it was the way to unlock the latch, but he had soon noticed that the key was a fair size too big for the keyhole on the book. He shook his head in disbelief and reached around behind his neck to string his new key back into place. _What good are these things if I can't even use them?_

"Well," Sakura started, a hand rubbing at her chin as she thought things out, "the first thing we should do is find out what kind of power you draw from. Before I first started using the power of the Stars, I was originally using a spell that invoked the powers of Darkness from my key. But after I became the mistress of the cards, I realized that I wasn't using the powers of Darkness anymore, so I changed up the spell to say 'Stars', instead of 'Dark', and it worked again. So, if we find out what kind of power you draw from, we can figure out what kind of spell you need to use, and then maybe you can transform your key. Maybe your book will open if you fully release the key's power?"

Tomoyo clapped her hands together, "Oh, how about we call Kero in? He would be able to tell instantly, I think!"

Sakura turned to her best friend with a wide grin, "That's a great idea! I'll call him right away!" she exclaimed, pulling a small, pink cell phone out of a pocket on her left side. A few dialed numbers later saw her standing in silence as the phone rang away on the other end, "Ah, hey, Kero! I have a problem that I need you to help me with. ...Yeah, so could you fly over to Tomoyo's house right away? ...Yes, of course there's cake..."

She continued on with her phone call, attempting to inform the listener of what she had learned in between near-constant interruptions that supposedly had something to do with food. She sighed with a light touch of frustration when she eventually ended the call, finding herself wishing that some things actually _would_ change.

"Kero? Another friend of yours? And he can use magic, too, I'm guessing?" Reios asked, leaning back into the sofa with his arms crossed as he watched Sakura put her phone away.

"Well, kind of," she replied, "He can use magic, in a way, but he's, well... not human. His real name is Kerberos."

Reios hummed inquisitively to himself, recalling that Kerberos – or Cerberus, as he would normally have pronounced it – was actually a gigantic, three-headed beast out of Greek mythology, the supposed giant hound guardian for the gates of the underworld. But then, he had more than enough to think about for the moment, and so left it alone.

"Well then, it sounds like we had better find some more cake for our next guest," Tomoyo suggested, guessing as to how the conversation went, "I'll go down and fetch another piece."

"Oh, I'll go too," Sakura put in, "He's going to want fresh tea, and you know how he is if it isn't heated right. Reios, sorry to leave you here again. We'll be back soon."

He smiled to the two of them, "I'm not one for formalities. Go, greet your friend. I'm not needed anywhere else for a while. At least, I won't be until we can figure this out, anyway."

The two soon departed with their respective trays, the carved oak door snapping quietly shut behind them. Reios immediately lurched forward upon being left alone, catching himself on his knees with his elbows as the exhaustion of the night finally attempted to catch up with him. If it were anyone else, he was sure they would've freaked out or called the whole thing a hoax by now. As it was, he was having a hard time believing it himself. The only thing that had kept him around was that he had actually been shown that everything he was being told was true. If nothing else, the transforming wand had convinced him more than anything. Staring at his own, newly-created key, he let his mind slip away into nothing more than a blank state...


	12. An Orange Flying Thing

_2-3c: An Orange Flying Thing_

The two left with their respective trays, the carved oak door snapping quietly shut behind them. He immediately lurched forward at that sound, catching himself on his knees with his elbows as the exhaustion of the night finally attempted to catch up with him. If it were anyone else, he was sure they would've freaked out or called the whole thing a hoax by now. As it was, he was having a hard time believing it himself. The only thing that had kept him around was that he had actually been shown that everything he was being told was true. If nothing else, the transforming wand had convinced him more than anything. Staring at his own, newly-created key, he let his mind slip away into nothing more than a blank state...

A soft series of knocks sounding out into the room eventually brought him out of his empty thoughts, and he silently admonished himself for having zoned out like that. He looked up to a clock on the wall – seven-thirty five. Almost three hours had elapsed since his arrival. He hadn't realized that he had been here for so long. But then, anyone else would have also lost track of the time as well, situation considered. He stood up and started his way towards the door when that knocking sounded out again, and somewhat impatiently at that. Only this time it had come from behind him, from the curtained window that lead to the room's balcony. His eyebrows furrowing down in confusion, he turned around and moved cautiously towards the window, making a note to keep open a clean path to his katana.

Flicking aside the edge of the curtains slightly, he spotted a small, flying, orange object floating just outside of the sliding door. Curious, more than anything, he threw the curtains wide open to try and get a better look. The moment the orange thing – it looked like a plush toy with wings – spotted him, it panicked visibly, shooting straight up and out of sight. Confused, but still intrigued, Reios pulled the curtains clear of the door handle and pulled the sliding door open to step out onto the balcony.

Sakura had said that the friend that she had called over wasn't exactly human, but there was something else about how she had worded her request that was bugging him. What was it now, something about asking this Kero person to _fly_ over to Tomoyo's house? Well, the plush toy that he had just seen seemed alive enough, had wings, and was obviously flying around. Taking a guess, he stepped up to the balcony's railing and leaned back to try and see out onto the roof.

"Uh, you are... Kerberos, I presume?" he asked hesitantly, unsure of whether the strange creature was even still present.

He waited there a moment, attempting to stare past the edge of the roof that was just over his head. Just as he was about to head back in, a movement above him caught his eye. He looked back up to find a pair of small, beady eyes set into an orange face staring back down at him. He stepped back out onto the balcony to try and get a better view of whatever was up above him, but the creature pulled back away as he moved, revealing no more than those two eyes that were continuing to peer at him with a suspicious glare.

"I can see you, you know," Reios insisted, narrowing his gaze as if to see against the encroaching evening darkness, though it was more in annoyance that the little creature thought that it was being stealthy.

It ducked away completely from view at his remark, an act that Reios could only roll his eyes at. He was getting tired of this game of hide-and-go-seek, "Look, I know who you are, I know _where_ you are, can we move this inside, please? The wind is surprisingly chilly tonight."

The pair of beady eyes, within which he thought he could see a speckle of gold, popped back over the ledge of the roof to consider him a moment. The creature then launched itself fully into the air without warning. Reios spun about to confront it, but it U-turned in mid-air and had already zipped by him, through the door, and into Tomoyo's room, all before he could think to get into its way. With yet another sigh of disbelief, _This cannot be happening, really,_ he made a U-turn for himself and headed back inside.

"Considering that you know who I am," the orange lion (bear? cat?) started, even as it was eyeing the room's contents carefully, "I'm going to assume that you are the problem that Sakura has."

Reios watched as the orange plush toy made a bee-line for the small table, and meanwhile considered how a plush toy could speak. With an Osakan accent, no less. However, there was also the fact that plush toys didn't fly around on their own, either, which made his encounter with this Kerberos all the more interesting.

Still unsure as to whether this was all one big joke or not, he decided to try and be polite to the thing, at least, "Err, well, I'm not so sure about the problem part, but... yeah, that's about right. The name's Reios."

This Kerberos (or was he supposed to call it Kero?) didn't seem to have even heard him at all, and was instead busy eyeing the three plates of cake that were still sitting where they had fallen from the tray that Sakura had dropped. Wearing a mask of utter perplexity, Reios moved his way back over to the sofa and sat down near the little creature who, by now, had taken up one of the provided forks. He was wielding it with a surprising proficiency, considering the size differences between the two.

Stunned into silence, Reios watched as Kero shoved the fork into the cake, tore off a chunk the size of his little orange head, and engulfed the whole thing within a single bite. The rest of the cake disappeared in a similar fashion, in what Reios estimated was as little as under twenty seconds. A raised eyebrow said a lot of how ridiculous the entire spectacle seemed, if anyone had been there to even wonder at his expression in the first place.

The door to the room popped back open just as the little creature was finishing up, admitting in a shortcake-toting Sakura and a teapot-wielding Tomoyo. Kero, having just finished his piece, turned about and eyed the fresher entrée carefully. Sakura shook her head sadly and knowingly as she spotted the small guardian beast, linking him to the empty plate only a small space away. She also laughed inwardly when Reios directed his "what-the-hell-is-this" gaze at her, trying hard not to outwardly show how funny his face looked just then.

Crossing the distance to the table, they set the pot and plate down, with Tomoyo moving to the side to gain an easier access to the cups. Using the movement as a distraction, Kero shot back into the air and towards the new plate of cake, but was quickly snatched back by a well-timed swipe of Sakura's hand.

With a cross and unforgiving face, he spun his head around to look at his mistress, unwilling to wait for her to spin him around for herself, "What's the big idea!?"

"You've already had some, Kero!"

"There's nothing wrong with having two or three more!" the guardian shot back, refusing to back down.

"There is when it comes to your greedy appetite. I'm surprised you're not as fat as a pig by now!"

Kero put on a hesitant grin, now that he was thinking on how to work his way out of this familiar spot, "Let's just say that sweets are healthy for me."

Sakura's stern expression told him that she wasn't buying the excuse, which he should have expected anyway. He grunted at her stubbornness before attempting to struggle his way free of her grip.

Reios watched as Kero fought his way out from Sakura's reach and floated away to sulk to himself, then turned to Tomoyo as she handed him a fresh cup of tea.

"I'm going to assume... they do that often?" he asked in a half-whisper to her, while still maintaining a side glance at the other two.

Tomoyo had an unreadable, all-knowing smile on, something that he somehow found slightly irritating, "Sometimes."

His eyebrows bounced upwards in conjunction with his rolling eyes before he thanked her and took the cup. She giggled to herself at the act, pouring a second cup for Kero as he landed beside an empty one. Taking a nearby spoon, Kero took a sip of his tea, then held that spoon upright like a spear while he glared directly at Reios.

"So! From what I was told over the phone, here we have the one that saved Sakura from yesterday's unprovoked assault," the guardian started, never letting his piercing gaze drop away from the unfamiliar face before him, "The one who also has a book similar to hers, had a key created by her, and possesses items that she has foreseen.

"What's more," he muttered, closing his eyes, "I can sense an aura of energy around you. It is very faint, weak and untouched, as though it were recently awakened. Likely it has something to do with that key she somehow made. If something is starting to once again build up around Sakura, then this is most certainly not a coincidence that you have been revealed to us at just the same moment."

"Okay," Reios interjected, leaning forward to rest his elbows onto his knees again, his hands folded together, "but here's the obvious question: why me?"

Kero shook his head slowly, "It could be any number of influences that drew you here, although my highest guess would be that it's some kind of work left behind by Clow Reed. He was the only one with enough magical strength to pull off something like this. As for it being you, specifically... Clow Reed's whims were about as unpredictable as they came, so who knows.

"Anyway, it would seem that our biggest mystery here is, what is inside that book? Our best bet on finding out, as Sakura originally guessed, is to fully release your power, and the easiest way to go about doing that would be to transform your new key. Yet, to do _that_, we need to discern what alignment your power draws from. So sit still for a second."

Before Reios could interject again, the diminutive guardian had leapt up from his place beside the teacup to come to a stop a mere inch away from Reios's head. Eyes closed again in concentration, the guardian slowly floated forward with his paw outstretched until it came to rest upon Reios's forehead. Then Kero let out a low moan as he focused his powers into a singular point.

An explosion of energy washed all throughout Reios's body, an experience that was not all that dissimilar to what he had felt back within that space-world. A feeling of pure, scorching pain, yet it was a pain that refused to register within his mind as such. Instead it was more as a paradox, with the realization of something greater coming into focus. Through the world that was beginning to whitewash all around him, he focused purely on remaining upright as he felt his sense of consciousness slipping away under the pressure of Kero's apparent strength. That power struggle seemed to continue on into eternity, as Kero's magic fought harshly against Reios's mind to locate the source of this supposed dormant energy.

Reality came spinning back to him at a sickening speed as Kero unexpectedly broke the connection, leaving Reios wavering slightly with the effort of having remained conscious throughout the whole experience. Shaking off the feeling of vertigo that was starting to overwhelm him, he looked at Kero with a thin, heated gaze, and muttered, "A more descriptive warning would have been nice."

Kero failed to hear him, though whether it was intentional or not was anybody's guess. Instead, he had turned his beady-eyed attention to Sakura to announce his findings, "There is definitely a power hidden there within him. As for why it hasn't surfaced on its own yet, it seems that either his own mind is actively suppressing it, or someone else had sealed it away. There was definitely an extremely powerful magical seal blocking my path to the source, in any event. Such a magic was no match for my awesomeness, however."

Kero's heroic posing was lost on her, as Sakura was too overly interested in wanting an answer to even take notice of his exploits. He grimaced slightly at her before continuing, "As you know, my power draws from the Sun and the Earth, the celestial bodies that define the powers of the Firey and Earthy cards. These two elements, in turn, align me with the ruling element of Light. It was because of that alignment that I was able to break through the seal that was placed within him, much like how you broke through the seal on his key. It would seem that our guest here also uses the powers of the Sun and the Earth, aligning him with the Light."

"So that means," Sakura added, verbally noting her reasoning, "that if we use the word "Light" in a transformation spell, Reios could probably change his key into its true form?"

Kero nodded, "That would seem to be the case."

"Uh, question," Reios put in, raising a hand to (hopefully) gain their attention, "What's this elements and alignment stuff? From what I know, magic is drawn from one's inner strength... isn't it?"

Kero turned about to address the question, "Well, it is true that most magic draws from the user's inner strength, the source of energy that your western culture would define as one's soul, but that strength also needs to be aligned with something to make that power tangible. Be it an elemental attribute, a celestial or terrestrial alignment, or even a worshipped god or demon, there always needs to be some kind of association. In this case, your own spiritual power draws from the celestial bodies of the Sun and the Earth, much like my magic. In this way, we are creatures of the Light.

"Spiritual energy, while strong or weak in its own regard, still needs a source from which to draw replenishing energy. Such a source places an identity to the user's spiritual power, and in a very limited way can also influence what types of magic they can or cannot use. It can also change how strong or weak their magical proficiency can be, based on varying factors such as time or location. Beings that use magic derived from the Moon, for example, will grow stronger during a full moon."

Kero made a landing beside his cup and picked up his spoon, "At any rate, Sakura is right. If you use the word 'Light' while attempting the spell, it should work. Do you know the incantation yet?"

Reios nodded slowly, still trying to keep up with the conversation, "Well, I'm pretty sure I do. I've watched her use it once already, and I think I can remember the words."

Kero took another sip of his tea, then nodded sharply to him, "Then let's see if it works."

He took a deep breath to collect his thoughts, and after a long moment, stood up and walked over to to the cleared-out part of the room. Reaching behind him, he unclasped the snake chain, slid the key from it, and re-secured the chain around his neck again. He stared at his key-like pendant for the longest time, wanting to accept as truth all of what he was about to do, but he was instead so sure that he was about to make a total and utter fool out of himself that it was hard to do anything of the sort.

He inhaled another calming breath and attempted to recall the words that Sakura had used to change her own key. They had said that he needed to replace the word "star" with the word "light" to make it work, though he found it hard to believe that changing a single word and spouting a fancy poem would fix anything. But what else was there to do but to trust and try? Releasing the breath that he still held, he nodded to himself, and held the key out before him in an opened palm.

The soft beep of a video camera turning on sounded out from nearby, but already he was engrossed within something else, blocking out all outside interference. An inner power welled up from within him at the first few words that came away from his lips. The feel of it's rising warmth would have scared him, had it not felt so welcoming.

"Key that hides the power of the Light..."

To his complete amazement, the key floated away from his hand and hovered in the air before him, glowing with a soft white light. From below, a stronger, golden glow emerged as the magic circle from the back of his book appeared below him. Kero flew up into the air as something about that circle caught his interest, and he noted that there was no moon or star representation within the design, but only the sun and its surrounding planets. A new magic circle that had never been seen before.

Reios, oblivious to this point, collected his thoughts and continued the incantation, "Show your true form before me... I, Reios, command you under our contract..."

All three of his viewers frowned in confusion as the spell continued, feeling that something was amiss. Normally, upon citing the portion of the chant that invoked the contract of the key, the object in question would begin to spin about uncontrollably as ethereal winds made to wrap themselves around it. Or at least, such was the case for Sakura's key. The silver key that now floated before Reios, on the other hand, as yet remained completely motionless, still softly glowing within an aura of white light.

Reios's eyes snapped open as he shot his left arm out impulsively towards the key, shouting the final command, "Release!"

Yet the key remained just as motionless and still as before, hovering calmly before him and being unexpectedly disobedient, instead of transforming into some kind of wand or staff as he had wanted it to. He thought that perhaps there was something that he had missed, and ran the the incantation through in his mind. When that failed, he thought that maybe there was some sort of effort he was lacking, though be damned if he knew how to put any effort into a power he had yet to understand. And he sure as hell didn't think that all of the extra posing Sakura had done had anything to do with it. That would just be too much.

Frustrated, Reios snatched at the floating key and took it back from its invisible perch, breaking the spell and dissipating the golden circle below him. It wasn't exactly what he had expected, but the end result was still the same: he had ended up making a complete and utter fool out of himself. He directed his attention onto the orange stuffed-toy creature, his fierce gaze demanding answers.

Kero understood the gaze well enough, humming to himself in a sagely manner, "Well, the key at least responded to the incantation, so obviously you're doing something right, but something else doesn't seem right about it. When I first contracted out the original Sealing Key to Sakura, I had felt the same bonds of magic form between her and that key that I felt form between you and yours just now. By all accounts, it should have fully transformed upon invoking the release of its true form."

Stepping over to where Reios's book rested, Kero began to glow slightly as he tested the latch. He soon nodded, thinking that he understood, "There is definitely a link leading from this book to the new key, and in turn to you yourself. This would mean that the bonds I felt forming up are indeed connected as they should be, but they're still inactive. I still believe that if we can get your key transformed into its true shape, we can finally unlock the book. The only problem now is that your key won't listen, for lack of a better term."

"So if I can change this key," Reios thought aloud, making sure he understood, "the book should open, right? Sounds like a kind of test to me. I hate tests."

Kero shrugged helplessly, "Be that as it may, it serves as our best chance to get to the next step. According to the dream that Sakura has revealed to me, it may be very important that you gain control of–"

The entire room froze up in tandem with Kero's unfinished sentence, leaving Tomoyo to glance between the three of her guests in worry as they stared off into space. It was a feeling that she couldn't seem to quite get rid of today, it seemed. Reios soon mimicked her, looking for answers as to what the majority of them had just felt.

Sakura and Kero both turned towards the window, watching the red-hued evening sky as if expecting some kind of disaster to descend upon them. Reios soon stepped up beside them and asked, "What was that just now? It felt like... like..." he trailed off, unsure of how to describe it.

"A presence... a strong one, amazingly strong. It was like a tidal wave washing over me," Sakura muttered, still trying to concentrate on it.

"Yeah, a powerful energy... very strong... almost evil... no, not evil. Corrupted," Kero added, doing his best to recognize the power he had felt, but with little success.

Sakura closed her eyes and concentrated on the residual traces that the dark wave had left behind, tracing it back to its source. The further her mind wandered, the more worried she became, constantly wondering at how strong the source of the magic had been to reach so far away with such might, and still her mind continued to span the distance between herself and the source. There were only two beings in the entire world that she knew for sure were capable of such power: Eriol, who was descended from the all-powerful Clow Reed and held most of his power, as well as Clow Reed himself. But the former was practically on the other side of the world, and the latter had passed away well and long before their time.

"It's coming from the park!" she announced suddenly, surprising Tomoyo and Reios at the sudden break in the silence.

Kero nodded in agreement, though he was still trying to discern the energy that he was feeling. Eventually he just gave up and instead addressed the group, "We'll have to go investigate. Try to pinpoint its source, but be careful! I'll go find Yue and meet you halfway."

"We can ask one of my bodyguards to take us," Tomoyo put in quickly, knowing that it would take far too long to get there by foot, or even if Sakura tried to carry them using the Fly.

Kero put all of his weight into the window's door handle, sliding the balcony window open with a grunt. He prepared to dart through, but spun back around with a last thought. Locking his sights firmly onto Reios, he commanded, "You! Go with them! It's no coincidence that this is happening at the exact same time that you show up – likely all Clow's doing. If you're supposed to be involved with us, then you'll do your best to help Sakura!"

Reios didn't even need to be told, as he was already sliding his staff into a loop on the left side of his belt in preparation for a fight. Nodding with a fierce determination, he rushed out the door to chase after Sakura and Tomoyo.

Holding his place for a moment, Kero tensed slightly at the strength of the energy that they had all felt. He looked up into the darkening sky, eying the half moon that was beginning to rise early. He had a very bad feeling about this.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	13. The King Penguin Park

_2-4: The King Penguin Park_

They made their way swiftly along the familiar park path, having left Tomoyo's bodyguard with the car at the park's edge. Sakura led the way as she constantly tried to verify the location of the power she had felt, her mind's eye flying in all sorts of directions to pinpoint it. Within the darkening evening, it was hard to pick her way through the shadowed park path at such a pace, especially considering that she was currently distracted. But then again, she had been along this way so many times before, that it almost felt like second nature to her to walk this road. So with both her senses and her memory as her guides, she rushed straight on ahead. Regardless of being slowly blinded by the approaching night, she charged her way at full speed straight towards the most familiar place of her childhood – the King Penguin playground.

The trio rounded a corner onto the lamp-lit lake side path, running hard towards the center of the park. The only witnesses to their haste were the small schools of fish in the lake as they glided gently by in the opposite direction. Just as they were coming into visual range of the entrance to the playground, they noticed that something was immediately different about the area. Something that was putting everything into a different perspective, and making it all seem very much wrong. Even Tomoyo, who lacked the magical senses of her two companions, was able to detect that not everything was normal. She quickly backed off from the rest of the group, and with her video camera she gladly took up the rear guard instead.

Arriving at the penguin lord's personal lands, they held themselves back just behind the two penguin sentries that guarded the entrance to their king's domain. The trio of invaders merely stood there, looking into the playground, watching and waiting for an immanent threat to appear. A long stretch of an eerie stillness soon saw Sakura's curiosity get the better of her, forcing her feet to step forward past the two statues and into the playground. She immediately sensed something powerful surround her as she passed that boundary, even though she was unable to detect anything visually. The air around her had also grown noticeably colder.

Reios and Tomoyo followed suit carefully, passing between the two penguins with their respective staff and camera at the ready. Stepping up beside Sakura, Reios could also feel the strong emissions of magic, dark and all-encompassing. This new 'sixth sense' of his, as it were, was unnerving him something fierce. Freeing his katana from its scabbard's grip, he stalked slowly towards and along the forested edge of the park, trying to keep the entire area under surveillance.

Tomoyo raised her camera to take in a panoramic view of the playground's familiar landscape, stopping mid-way with a zoomed out view of Sakura scouting around the large penguin slide. Her target soon having disappearing around the left side, Tomoyo turned her point of view to watch Reios as he continued to check the perimeter. Her digital eye soon turned back as Sakura reappeared on the other side of the King Penguin, the brown-haired girl looking confused and concerned.

Sakura glanced back and forth between her two companions, "I can feel it... an immensely powerful presence, and it's right here. So why can't we find anything?"

Reios called back from the far edge of the playground, "Maybe it... whatever it is, doesn't want to be found?"

"Hmm..." was all Sakura could reply with, still consumed as she was in processing the corrupted presence that had saturated the park grounds. She circled the King Penguin again, wondering if perhaps she had just missed something.

After circling the giant slide for a third time, she felt the spark of a presence. It was almost as if something about her surroundings had changed. She was soon joined by Reios, whom had felt it as well, and then by Tomoyo as she noted a rise in their curiosity. Together they followed Sakura's gaze to the swing set to find a small green flower sitting on the ground underneath one of the seats. Using the zoom on her camera to examine it, Tomoyo thought it looked like an exquisitely carved crystal. To the others, it was glowing with a faint yet sickly aura.

Sakura took a step forward slowly, trying to get a closer view since the soft lamp light of the park path was being of little help. In response to her movement, the crystal flower began to shift and vibrate. At first only shaking about gently, its motions continued to grow in intensity until it was dancing upon the ground violently, eventually even bouncing about under its own effort. Sakura back stepped away quickly, pushing her two friends away with her with a raised arm.

When the crystal flower finally cracked and shattered under the influence of its own actions, the world around them was blasted with pure chaos.

From the broken remains of that crystalline flower rose a tempest wind more fierce than any storm Sakura had ever experienced before. It also held within its gales all the evil and corruption that the energy all around her had previously contained. In only an instant, the three of them were all engulfed within a a raging, relentless windstorm. Leaves, twigs, dust and sand, and even blades of grass, they all combined together to form a barrage of flying projectiles.

One twig flew up from the ground nearby, spinning through the air as though it were a helicopter blade, and with an uncanny accuracy struck Sakura clean across her left cheek to leave a thin cut and a powerful sting. Through an anger that began to boil inside of her, that such a force would endanger not only herself but also her friends as well, she called up from within her soul a silence that blocked out all interference. Within this silent world, ignoring all distractions, she took action.

"Release!" came the call, her key spiralling through the air. Instantly caught up within Sakura's firm grasp, the transformed wand quickly shot skyward as it chased after one of the Sakura Cards.

"Shield!" she cried, invoking the card's power to form a protective energy barrier around the three of them. From all of the debris and dust that was flying along with the raging winds and was now striking against this new obstacle, the boundaries of the Shield were visible even to Tomoyo's unaided eyes. Her camera angle was spinning in each and every direction to show the sheer destructive force of the power that they were facing. Then her camera spun around full front again, as a soft gasp from Sakura drew their collective attention to a movement within the maddened tempest beyond.

Before them, situated a few meters outside of the Shield's reach, was a humanoid form floating just a hand's width off of the ground. Its body was comprised of visible wisps of wind that were illuminated by a green aura, as though the very air itself had been made into a tangible substance. It floated through the windstorm that raged all around them, unhindered by flying debris and raging gusts alike, its featureless head directed right towards them.

Even though she could discern no eyes, Sakura got the distinct feeling that it was staring right at her.

The closer the wind-like form approached, the quieter the storm became, until finally the storm had died away completely. It left the translucent, wind-made being before them hovering mere inches away from the edge of the Shield's protective reaches. Its head turned slightly left to right as it examined the three humans that stood before it, its eyeless staring piercing through each of them in turn. The unseen gaze caused a rather uneasy feeling in all of them.

Working up her courage, Sakura was the first to speak, "Who... who are you?"

The answer came from all around them, through the rustling wind and the leaves that fluttered on their branches. It was a half-existent voice formed from the sounds of nature and the natural winds blowing across their ears. It spoke, _I am she who greets thee, legacies of Clow, now the witnesses to fate. The pieces have all begun to gather, and thus your trials now begin_.

"Trials?" Sakura asked, "What trials? And what does Clow have to do with this?" Nothing of what this being had just said was making any sense to her, for it couldn't have possibly been correct. Neither Kero nor Eriol had ever told her of any sort of trial that was as yet to come, and Eriol had also specifically mentioned that he was dead certain there would be no further surprises that he was forgetting. For something to pop up out of the woodwork now, and for it to be potentially related to Clow Reed... it was almost unfathomable to her.

Peering through the featureless face of the wind-like form before her, Sakura swore that she could see a grin of absolute malice stretching across its mouthless head.

_Clow has everything to do with this! Yet he will no longer have a part in what should have been his duty, for now that task falls to his descendants and successors. _You_ will be the chosen, the representations of your race. We shall now see how your revered 'celestial power' stands up against the ever-present dark abyss!_

The being's cryptic words continued to confound her, but the emotion in those words was making one thing abundantly clear. This being intended to cause far more harm than through a simple windstorm.

"But Clow has been dead for who knows how long! What do you want with us?" Sakura cried back.

Yet the wind-form failed to heed her query, instead choosing to float away several meters into the air. Following in its wake returned the corrupted tempest winds, raging against the impenetrable force of the Shield as it sought to wreak havoc against anything in its path. Sakura knew that as long as they were entrapped by the powers of these magic-wrought winds, there was very little else that they could do. There just had to be a way to take control of the situation without being buffeted by the storm in the process.

Then it hit her: she had the ability to control the elemental winds as well! Focusing on the timing of her spells, she released the power of the Windy just as she recalled the protection of the Shield. The two cards traded places, with the Windy only allowing the tempest to rage unchecked for a fraction of a second before dispersing its body into the winds, using its control over its own element to counteract the effects of the corrupted storm. And as the Windy fought to calm the winds around them, Sakura could feel the mental stress that such an effort was causing on both the card and herself, and through that she could determine that this would be no pushover of a foe.

Despite the stress being placed upon her, Sakura knew that she had to push on, and mentally directed the Windy to next engage the wind-being itself. But how did one go about stopping an ethereal being that was made of nothing more than... what, air? Ideas soon flew into her head, her years of training and effort under the tutelage of Kerberos and her own Cards taking hold, and she reached into her pocket to draw another card. For this, she would entrap the being's visible form within a cage of air-tight earth.

Her hand came into contact with the cards in her right pocket, and immediately something felt completely wrong. She instinctively knew that the cards themselves were fine, but that wasn't the problem. What _was_ the problem was that she couldn't feel the connection between them and her magical powers. She glanced sharply upwards as this realization took place, watching in horror as the Windy materialized back into its true physical form before vaporizing and reforming into a card. Next, the wand within her hand began to lose cohesion, its shape altering uncontrollably until it fell to the ground as the small, decorative key that she always carried. Then, her very mind registered a change of reality.

Sakura fell to her knees alongside the dying winds, their raging powers no longer being necessary for the wind being to maintain. The whole world was spinning fast around her as the majority of her power was suddenly and rudely stripped away from her. Sakura could feel an unknown force placing a heavy seal on her magic, a thick blanket that was surrounding her and cutting off any and all traces of the Stars from her spirit, though too little of her magic remained to her to figure out where such a seal had come from. Not that she needed to figure it out, since it was all too obvious to her anyway.

The wind-form fully materialized before them just after Sakura had fallen, this time with its face providing a minimum of facial features to define a mood most akin to pleasure. However, within the newly-formed pits that should have held its eyes, there was only the feeling of malice. A non-existent yet piercing gaze of evil and insanity that only a hell-spawned creature could match. It was thus that Reios determined a name for it.

"Demon!" he cried out, his katana fully drawn and aimed directly forward, held high above him with the intention of decapitating, "What have you done to her? _Speak_!"

The demon only continued to bear its vicious smile, an act that only served to enrage him further. Winding up to attack, Reios darted in across the playground with a low-growled battle cry, spun about in a counter-clockwise motion to build momentum, and cut towards the demon's form with a slicing charge that surely would split its body in half. An angered cry rang out into the trees as he slashed straight through the demon's body with the force of a bull.

And though his aim was true, his katana literally met no resistance as he indeed slashed straight through the demon's wind-formed body. Taking him off balance, Reios continued to spin as he recovered himself, skipping a few paces further as he sought to about-face and set himself into a defensive stance. Upon coming about, he noted that Sakura was standing once again, though Tomoyo was forced to rush over and aid her uneasy balance with a sturdy shoulder.

"Why you...." he muttered, then charged again, slicing through yet more "empty air" as he attempted a second yet futile assault against the seemingly pleased demon. He realized that his attacks were useless, but he felt equally as useless just standing there hoping he could defend himself or his new friends against magical effects that he knew nothing about. On a positive note, he at least now found himself back on Sakura's side of the park.

Setting into a defensive stance again, he edged himself backwards towards the two girls. Risking a glance away from his opponent to gauge their condition, he asked, "What happened to you? What's wrong?"

Sakura shook off the last of the dizziness, and took charge of her own balance again. Her emerald eyes, with a heavy wave of fear frozen within them, peered up at the floating form of the demon, "I-I don't know how, but... it..."

She knelt down and picked up the pink Star Key from the ground nearby. Quickly working the transformation spell through her thoughts, she called for Release, and held the key in front of her to allow it to work. However, as she had expected, nothing happened. She could feel no bond between herself and the key, and she could just barely sense the bonds between herself and the cards, at that.

She shut her eyes against the reality that she now faced, instead trying to focus on a solution that was refusing to appear to her, "My magic won't work... it sealed my... I can't use my cards, and my key..."

A soft trill of a laugh emitted itself from the demon's ethereal form above them, and then all throughout the forest as nature echoed back its sounds. Hints of madness and venomous joy, the same depraved emotions that were somehow visible through its deformed eyes, echoed into the trees.

_My seal upon your powers is only temporary, do not fear. They will return with my defeat, though this would mean that they will not return. The powers of the wind encompass everything, for the wind is everything immaterial. Thus has it encompassed you. We shall see what you are capable of when the very air around you can lock away your one chance at victory. And then we shall find that your celestial deities made poor choices in selecting the strongest of your race._

"I don't get what you're talking about!" Sakura yelled, annoyance creeping into her as the demon's words continued to fail at making any sense. Their days had passed them by so peacefully, until tonight. Now they had this crazed wind-being going on about celestial deities, chosen representatives, and then attacking them without provocation to boot. Why did everything have to go bad just as their lives were starting to settle down?

"Why are you doing this to us? What do you want!?"

The smile vanished from the demon's limited facial features as it looked away from them and into the sky, as if it had suddenly realized something of great import. When next it looked to its three human contenders, its blank face was a directed glare of pure hostility that contradicted a mask of a seemingly serene tranquility, _The players are all in their places, so now we can truly begin. I want you all, simply put, to die._

The demon flicked an arm casually in their direction, causing a powerful blast of wind to send them all flying back several meters. All three of them landed down with harsh, painful thuds, with their recovery against such an assault being painfully slow. Retribution remained lacking, as Sakura continued to brainstorm on what she could possibly do to fix this. Yet, without her magic or her cards, what else was there to do? In her current condition, she was both helpless and useless, and it was going to take a miracle to get them out of this one.

And until she was able to come up with something, Reios could pretty much tell that he was the only one left with any semblance of magic power with which to defend them with, and regardless that he held no inkling of how to use that power. If he could somehow manage to transform his key, as Kero had suggested, he felt that he could finally do something to help out. Of course, there was still the issue that his new key didn't want to work. He was certain that he had performed the transformation spell flawlessly, less all the dramatic posing that Sakura had done. Even Kero had said that the key had formed bonds between itself and Reios, bonds that Kero said he had also felt between Sakura and her own key when he had contracted that key out to her. So if there was nothing wrong with his actions that could be detected, and he actually had the power to do something about all of this, then why the hell wasn't he able to–

_Wait a minute_, he thought, as something about his train of thought started to click in, _That plush toy said that he had _contracted_ out the Sealing Key to Sakura... I didn't have anyone offer me a contract for _my_ key, did I? It was just "given" to me... So maybe..._

Quickly sliding his katana back into its scabbard, he dug under his shirt and practically ripped his pendant into view. He stared at it for a long moment, considering the possible chants he might use, though he again found himself skeptical that a simple change of words could make a difference. Nodding to himself, he closed his eyes against his doubts and focused his thoughts entirely on the key, which immediately slipped through and away from the snake chain around his neck as if both were made of nothing more than air. Holding the pendant close to him, he willed it to listen, _Please, accept me. Let me use your power... _

He stretched out his hand and readied the incantation in his mind, only to be distracted by a digital beep sounding out against the wind-swept evening air. A side glance revealed that Tomoyo had slipped away to a nearby set of jungle bars, and that she was now recording everything from a distance. That she could perform something so trivial in the face of immanent destruction... _She's got courage, I'll give her that_.

Eyes closing, his mind set to the task, he raised his left arm forward to place his key before him again. As an added thought, he raised his right arm up at the same time, two fingers raised before his face as though he were chanting a mantra. It was immediately apparent to everyone that he was acting for the camera.

Reios began his incantations, "Key that hides the power of the Light... show your true form before me!"

The pendant rose up as the new magic circle of the sun and the planets took form, and once again the key hovered before him silently while glowing with a faint white aura. Reios pulled his left arm in as if he were readying it to strike at something, locking it at his side while slowly sweeping his right arm out wide.

"I, Reios..."

Tension filled the air as he stalled mid-sentence, with Sakura and Tomoyo both anxiously anticipating the results of his desperate play. Even the demon had become silenced, in order to witness the enemy before it try in vain to work his magic. Reios took in a deep breath, something that the two girls were already holding, and took his leap of faith.

"...hereby request of you a contract!"

Sakura's mind began to race, as the implications of the changed spell filled her head with the answers they had sought. At the same time, Reios finally understood what needed to be done. With his key awakening before him and spiraling out of control with an excess of magic energy, he completed the spell. Raising his right arm skyward only to shoot it forward against his key, he called out the final verse.

"With our contract signed, I now command you! Release!"

The pendant quickly became enveloped within a sphere of light, spinning ever faster as it sought to break its physical bounds. Setting itself upright, the shaft of the key pointing straight into the sky, it began to extend its length. Its features continued to change before their eyes into a long and silvery object. The dragon's claw pommel, upon which was mounted the key's crystal orb grown to three times the original size, was set atop a rune-engraved, four-horned cross guard. The rest of the object's bladed length easily identified its use.

The silver pendant had transformed into a majestic, bright-silver long sword.

Caught up in the moment, Reios swung his right arm viciously at the grip of the sword, snapping it away from the magic that was holding it out to him. With a mischievous grin on his face, he swung the sword up and over his head, landing it heavily onto his shoulders and stepping into a defiant stance to challenge the demon to battle.

That demon allowed him no chance to relax, and immediately threw its entire force into another wind attack. The rising tempest swirled about, forming itself right there in the park as a tornado of dust, sand, leaves, and twigs, all of which threatened to sweep everything up and away from the ground and into the evening sky. Sakura quickly grabbed at a hand hold on the King Penguin, while Tomoyo held tight to the jungle bars near her as she continued to record the action. However, instead of taking cover for himself, Reios lifted his sword back up into the air, holding it straight up above his head.

"Reios, hurry! Grab a hold of something!" Sakura shouted, but he failed to heed the words, and by no cause of the raging winds engulfing them at that. Instead, he shot off into the very center of that storm, his sword falling in behind him as he repositioned to grasp at it with both hands. Brimming with confidence, the demon sent the magic-induced tornado rushing towards this suicidal warrior with a mere flick of its wrist.

The storm approached, yet he did not turn and run as the demon had expected. Instead he skidded to a stop, digging a foothold into the ground. Using the built-up momentum of the charge, he swung his sword as hard as he could in the tornado's direction, his voice ringing out into the night, "Seraphic Edge!"

Everyone, and especially Reios, watched in awe as a thin, crescent-shaped wave of white light flew out from the sword's arcing tip and sliced right through the tornado, splitting it in half and dissipating its power. The storm winds died off almost immediately afterwards, leaving the wind-formed demon none too happy with the outcome. Its fury multiplied even more when checked against Reios's mocking grin.

_Damn your interference_, came the wispy curse, low-toned and threatening. Its arm outstretched, the demon clenched a tight fist at Reios, crushing his ability to resist as he felt his power being ripped away from him just as quickly as he had gained it. Collapsing from the sudden blow to his spirit, he managed to catch himself on a knee as he fell, while an outstretched arm grasped at a nearby penguin mound to help maintain his balance. By the time he had worked his way back onto his feet, with reverted silver key in hand, Sakura and Tomoyo were both already beside him.

"What happened? Are you all right?" Sakura asked, helping to hold him up as he wavered slightly.

With an audible effort he straightened himself up fully, shaking off the weariness, "I'll be... fine enough. But I think it's done the same to me as it did you. What little power I had... it's gone now."

_And with it gone, so too does your hope vanish!_ the demon called out into the wind, _Now fulfill your purpose and die, so that the Absorption may begin._

The demon traced a circle in the air with its hand, then again, and then a third time. Closing the tracing of the third circle, its hollow eyes flashed with a brilliant emerald light, and with that light came the wind. It swirled around them all, closing in, growing more fierce with each passing moment as the eye of the storm concentrated upon the three humans that it had surrounded. Helplessly caught within the storm, they stood in place with their arms raised to their faces to somehow guard themselves against the relentless assault.

A_s the first to strike, you shall be the first to die. Be off with you!_

A slight flick of its hand saw the force of the winds increased by ten-fold. The instant change in the wind speed threw Reios and Tomoyo clean away from their friend who still remained trapped within the storm, landing them none too gently near the edge of the playground. Reios rushed to his feet and pushed ahead to regain his position, katana in hand once again, but he was thrown back effortlessly as the winds continued to buffet him and bar his attempts to providing any semblance of aid to Sakura. He and Tomoyo were finally forced to pull back and away from the fury, standing helpless at the park's edge as the storm continued to rage about the area.

Still caught within the storm's eye, Sakura found it surprisingly easy to stand without effort or obstruction, though within the confines of her windy prison, she was restricted to mostly just that. She stared up into the now pitch-black, starless sky, trying to think of a way out. With her Fly card, she could perhaps just launch straight up and out of this storm, but then there was the issue of not even being able to use it in the first place. She feared for her chances of survival if she just stayed put, but she also didn't want to risk the consequences of braving the storm around her should she dare and try to cross through it.

Then the storm engulfed her, closing in and clamping onto her as though it were the fist of a great and mighty gigas. She guarded herself against it, tried to run in any direction just to escape, but found that she had been lifted away from the very ground that she was trying to use. She threw all of her weight into the storm, but it held tight to her as the fist of a mighty gigas should, effectively entrapping her. She looked up through the swirling winds and debris to the demon floating above her, staring into its cold, hollowed-out eyes until the winds had risen her up to be level with them. Being so unbearably close to the demon, she could now see within those non-existent eyes a desire for retribution, an icy glare devoid of both kindness and care.

And yet...

...there was something else within them...

The thought was forcefully driven from her mind when the demon smiled with a coldness to match its eyes. Lifting both arms into the sky, the demon threw the wind under its control up and into the atmosphere, sending along with it the girl that was entrapped within. Sakura could no longer control her fear, and screamed sharply against the furious winds that continued to carry her aloft at such sickening speeds, the sounds of both blocking out the cries of her friends below. Too scared to witness what she knew was soon to come, she shut her eyes tight and clasped her arms to herself tightly, bracing herself for the inevitable end.

The wind carrying her aloft then stalled, leaving her to her own devices as she continued to ascend slowly towards the darkened skies. She flew to a stop and hovered there a mere fraction of a moment before her flight took on its inevitable reverse course, dropping her back towards the Earth at terminal velocity. With her fate now fully realized, Sakura could do no more than to curl up into a ball and await the end, for it was all that she could think to do anyway. Her fears of the coming end allowed no other thought to grace her mind.

_Sakura!!_

Time felt like it had stopped abruptly when she finally realized how foolish she was being. She should have known better than to lose hope so easily.

Everything would be all right. She was sure of it.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	14. Call of the Elements

_2-5a: Call of the Elements_

He strolled along the sidewalk that lined the water's edge, breathing in the familiar evening air of the park forest. Aside from a new coat of paint along the guard rail, it seemed that very little had changed. The birds and the wind sounded much the same as always, with the trees swaying softly in the slightly-chilled breeze. The gentle lapping of the lake's waters, and the hushed rustling of the leaves, all of it lulled him into a feeling of serenity that he had been wanting to experience for oh so long. So long, in fact, that he had almost forgotten what serenity was altogether. He was effectively experiencing Heaven on Earth in this one single moment.

And now, the only experience that was left, before he could truly be at ease, was to see his angel again.

Of course, there was the issue of that certain family matter that he was supposed to be attending to, the entire reason that he had even been allowed to return in the first place, but surely the gods would forgive him for wanting to be selfish just one more time. Right? Besides, he might even find a helping hand, this way.

He stopped and turned to look out upon the water, watching as a pair of goldfish darted through his field of view. He leaned in against the guard rail, arms crossed, and looked up into the clear evening sky. There it was, finally, the one speck of light that he had been waiting for all evening. Nestled in amongst the few brighter stars that could be seen against the lights of the city's downtown core, it was just barley visible to the naked eye. He smiled as a familiarity washed over him, and he knew immediately who that star belonged to. Or rather, he had always known. In all of his days and nights ever since that specific day, it had never failed to be there when he had required a moment of peace. He closed his eyes and drank in the sounds of nature as they wafted around him gently.

His eyes snapped back open as the serenity of nature's ways was rudely shattered, only to be replaced by an unease within the very trees themselves. There was a sort of taint within the wind as well. He jumped back into the middle of the wide park path, his right hand straying close to his pocket just in case there was a need to defend himself. There was something about that taint in the air, the smell of it, that made him very uncomfortable.

And then he recognized it – the taint of magic. There was a form of sorcery being conducted nearby, powerful and dark in form, corrupted even. It would figure that something of this sort would happen on his very first day back, yet still he cursed his luck that he was to be further delayed in meeting her again – he had waited three whole years for this day, and a few more hours could go damn themselves for all he cared. Or perhaps luck actually favored him, in that his primary reason for having come back to this place was now within reach, for he could also sense a familiarity within the corrupted winds that had begun to pick up in ferocity. Removing a fist-sized black orb from his pocket, he focused his mind into its center, unsealing its energy to release its true form. Within moments he was running down the path with his ever-faithful sword in hand, chasing after the source of the dark taint that had continued to hang in the air.

The breeze that had before been so cool and comforting continued to pick up considerably, quickly turning into something just shy of a hurricane-force windstorm. He braced himself against the strength of it and continued on at a quick jog, making his way towards the King Penguin playground that he remembered so well. He could sense it, there. The dark and corrupted energy that was being carried through the wind, it was centered there. He yet again quickened his pace.

He almost skidded to a full stop as the wind then carried to him a sharp scream of fear, causing his heart to lurch uncontrollably. He knew that voice! A fear filled his own being as he had never known before, his feet flying at a dead run towards the playground, all despite the fierceness of the pounding gales. He prayed to any spirit that would listen to him that he wasn't already too late.

He pulled to a stop just beyond the park's twin sentry guards, watching in horror as a visible aura of magic embedded within the very wind itself shot fast into the sky above, flying almost out of sight. And within the grasp of the swirling, magicked winds above him, a familiar form. His fear broke in that moment, only to be replaced by a all-consuming need to stop this madness before it could all end in tragedy.

"Sakura!!" came his panicked cry, which was quickly followed by the flourish of sword and paper.

"Fûka, shôrai!"

He didn't even wait for his own elemental wind to finish its task of rescue, and instead darted straight into the park. He cast his eyes about for the potential threat, his mind searching where his eyes were not. His inner senses were starting to pick something up, but he couldn't see what – there!

"Raitei, shôrai!" came the second incantation, striking his sword against the elemental charm with an extra ferocity. Bouts of electricity and lightning shot forth from their confines within his spirit, lashing out at the tainted aura that was hovering just above the King Penguin slide. A shriek of rage and pain ensued from the very winds that were engulfing him, a sound that assured him that he had at least stunned his target for the moment. Spinning about quickly to utilize the time he had bought himself, he rushed to where his wind spell had placed the previously flying body.

He practically skidded onto his knees as he came to a stop before her, grabbing her shoulders, shaking her, wanting her attention, "Sakura!"

Sakura looked up from where she was still cowering, fully aware of the tear that was rolling down her cheek but completely uncaring of it. In her fear of the inevitable, within the wind-swept chaos that had engulfed her short moment of flight, she had truly heard him calling for her. It was really him – Syaoran was here, here for her, holding her, and wanting her to respond. Here before her was the very miracle that she had so desperately sought after only minutes ago. Her gaping smile was infectious, and had him smiling back in turn.

An unfamiliar man sidestepped closer to the pair, gaining Syaoran's attention and causing him to also note Tomoyo's presence at the far side of the playground. He looked up as the man – who was wielding a thin, katana-style sword, his stance set against whatever had fallen away from its place above the King Penguin slide – inquired, "I hate to break up this moment, but can we deal with this little demon situation first, please?"

"And you are?" Syaoran asked cautiously, unsure of whether or not he had to protect Sakura from this mystery man as well.

"The name's Reios. You?"

"Syaoran Li," he replied, helping Sakura to her feet before turning to face whatever it was that this Reios was set against, "So, mind explaining what's going on?"

Reios didn't get a chance to reply, as he felt a surge of power flow back into him. Sakura gasped aloud as a similar feeling washed through her own body, and she jumped fully to her feet in response to it. Replacing his katana back into its scabbard, a quick nod from Sakura told him all he needed to know. In a near-synchronized motion they grabbed at their keys, a sharp command reforming their pendants into their respective tools.

Syaoran stared sharply at the silver sword that was now held tightly within this Reios person's grasp. The cross-guard was a fair bit different from his own sword: a dark silver in color with an inverted claw-like, rune-engraved design, as opposed to his own sword's smooth and golden half-circle. Yet that meant little, for what really astounded him was the fact that this Reios character had just performed a transformation spell on a key that he had never even known existed. What was worse, the sword seemed to be glowing with a faint aura of dark and mysterious energy...

Syaoran's questions were again cut short, with a low yet sharp cry of rage flying from the demon as it rose up from the ground near the slide to glare at the four humans before it. The first thing anyone noticed was that the demon had taken on a true physical form: a fully formed female figure with long, pine-green hair and oddly-pointed ears, complete with green-washed robes, as opposed to her ethereal, half-human likeness from before. The demon seemed to realize this as well, the sudden physical limitations placed upon her made very much apparent in each step she took. The four humans al took up a defensive stance, as the demon made her approach.

"I congratulate you for actually having managed to damage my power. However, it is only a form of cowardice, even weakness, that you must so rely on your allies to fight for you," she said, her green-tinted eyes – which were now also whole, and more human-like in appearance – piercing hard into Syaoran's own, "Something which is unforgivable!"

If there was anything at all that Sakura could not stand, it was her friends being considered a burden, "You're wrong! My friends _are_ my strength. They are what give me my courage!"

The demon shook her head in disbelief, that this child before her still failed to understand the greater meaning of the challenges that lay ahead. But then, she was still just a child. A playful chuckle escaped the demon's lips as she exerted her power, levitating into the air again, "Then use that strength, and see if it is of any match against mine. Use those that only hold you back, and cut me down if you dare!"

_So, you want to get cut down, huh?_ Syaoran thought, a plan coming to fruition within his head. He backed off, keeping his voice low enough so that the demon would hopefully not hear, "Sakura, I want you to surround it in a water bubble with Watery. You... Reios? You charge at it so that it doesn't try to interfere, distract it however you need to. Once its trapped inside the Watery, I'll attack. Got it?"

The other two nodded, and without any warning Reios dashed headlong towards the demon, his silver sword trailing behind him as he wound up for a swing. He grinned to himself as the demon took the bait, floating herself away from him to give herself enough time to weave a counter-spell against the charge. But by the time the demon managed to realize that something completely different was going on, it was far, far too late to defend itself.

"Water, become a binding chain! Watery!"

Sakura's chanted command forced the card above her into being, causing the avatar of water to fly up and over the demon's position to splash into the body of water beyond the playground. Within moments, multiple tornados of water shot out of the small lake, each one of them easily piercing through the demon's unprepared magical defenses from several different directions. Each of the spears of water slammed into the demon's physical form, dissipating and reforming until she was completely surrounded within a spherical prison of water. The demon fought and struggled valiantly against her liquid bonds, but found herself completely immobile.

She turned herself about in the water to face the brats that would attempt to defeat her, and spotted the newcomer chanting some sort of spell. When she recognized the elemental charm that he was holding as being the same one from before, she braced herself for an attack that would be painful, yet ultimately futile. Futile, because she still held to the control of the elemental winds around her.

"Raitei, shôrai!"

The blades of lightning came, piercing the air between the young sorcerer's sword and the entrapped demon just as Reios ducked off to the side with a perfect sense of timing.

The wind followed, an unexpected and fierce gust that slammed into Reios from behind, the feeling of a large sledgehammer coming to his mind as he flew head first back into the path of the coursing electricity. Before anyone could react, both man and lightning were merged into a single ball of sparks and bolts, the miniature sun that had formed before them blinding them all as to his fate. Any potential cries of pain and agony were all cut off by the crashing sounds of thunder that it was causing.

Syaoran's mouth gaped wide in horror, as the realization hit him that he had just taken an innocent life.

Sakura and Tomoyo were also in a veritable panic, unable as they were to act against Reios being enveloped into a magic-induced grave. Along with the green-clad prisoner that wore a grim smile of victory, the whole lot of them could only watch on while the white-hot electrical storm made to burn away anything that was left. Yet after an extended moment, Sakura strained her eyes against the bright light show being let off by the arcing, yellow bolts, attempting to peer straight through the blinding display and into its center. Something did not seem right... the magic was taking way too long to dissipate. In fact, the elemental spell seemed to be changing.

"Sky striker, lord of storms..." came the English chant, vocal echoes coming from seemingly all around them, yet Sakura was positive that she had heard it originate from the still-existent ball of lightning. Her hopes rose higher and higher still as the magic began to focus and shrink into a singular point, as though it were being absorbed by something, revealing an unharmed Reios wielding a sword coursing bright with wild, electrical energy. He grinned just as wildly at the demon, a cold rage lingering in his eyes that was just barely covered over with the intensity of the power that he now wielded.

The green-clad demon looked into his soul, through those ice-cold brown eyes, and she knew fear.

"Raiden Call!" he cried, his voice the very example of a feral beast signalling its attack. Stepping back into a stance, he spun into a full counter-clockwise circle, twirling his sword above him in a flourish of spins before coming back around to place the full weight of his body and strength into the strike. The sword made contact with the sphere of water, allowing the lightning within it to leap away from its metallic confines and into the more appealing escape of the liquid around it. For a moment, the demon and the winds both screamed in ear-piercing shrills as it finally experienced the assault of Syaoran's magic.

It's scream was cut off abruptly as Reios's sword completed its cycle, slicing the water prison clean in half. Syaoran remained still to watch the results, though with the expectation of both blood and gore, Sakura and Tomoyo quickly turned themselves away.

Reios maintained his follow-through position, sword held straight out before him, while the remains of the demon behind him collapsed away from the dissipating water and lightning and onto the ground below. Straightening up from his attack, he turned with a grim sense of pride to view the aftermath of his handiwork. Instead, he was stunned to find the demon still very much intact, forcing a thin gasp of shock out of him as he stared at its face-down body. He checked against his memory, but he was certain that his sword had struck true. By all accounts, the being before him should have been split cleanly into two.

The two girls noted the sounds of surprise, and turned back towards the scene. Sakura was the first of the two to approach, eyeing the demon's "remains" carefully for any signs of injury as she closed, and yet she could not find any. Not a single cut nor any a scrape was apparent, let alone any kind of burn from the electrical attack, to say nothing of the gaping hole that should have been where its torso still remained. She looked up to Reios with a questioning look.

He read the look, and replied accordingly, "I don't get it either. I didn't miss, I know that for sure."

Except that he had missed her meaning completely, because she then asked, "But how did you survive getting hit like that!?"

The realization hit Reios of what he had just done, and it literally froze him to the spot as he tried to figure out just that. Being able to launch lines of deadly white light from the tip of a sword was one thing, but surviving a direct lightning strike? And then absorbing that lightning as though it were nothing more than the static electricity off of a sweater, no less. He found his continued ability to remain standing staggeringly surprising.

His answer to these queries came out haltingly, "I, uh... that's a... that's a good question. Any ideas?"

That was not the reply any of them had been hoping for, and varied glances from person to person revealed that each of them was as clueless as the other.

"You were looking pretty good out there, though. Almost as good as Sakura herself!" Tomoyo added in, coming up from behind a blushing Sakura with her video camera in hand, "Did you take acting classes at some point?"

A goofy grin unwillingly setting itself upon his face, Reios scratched idly at his head, "Actually, I did take some drama classes back in grade sch..."

The world around him blanked out. The next thing that he was able to remember was him pushing himself weakly onto his hands and knees, his elbows and two pairs of hands just barely managing to support his weight while he focused hard to remain conscious. Physically, he knew that he was fine, but there was something in a different part of him that felt faint. Exhausted, even. It was like he had spontaneously missed the last two weeks of going to sleep. What he wouldn't have given for a pillow, right about then.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked, she and Syaoran both having darted down to assist him right after his collapse. Reios shook off the encroaching darkness, took hold of his senses, and between the efforts of his two helpers eventually managed to get back onto his feet. He shook his head again, more this time to deny any knowledge of what had just happened, though he still felt the overwhelming desire to just fall asleep right then and there.

"I'd be able to tell more accurately if I knew the facts better," Syaoran stated, thinking back to when Sakura was still working on reincarnating the Clow Cards, "but based on what little magic I can sense remaining within you, I'm going to guess that this is your first time using magic in general. Am I right?"

Reios nodded wearily, a murmur of a yes escaping his lips. His theory verified, Syaoran turned towards Sakura to continue, "Then it's similar to when you were converting all the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards. The first few exhausted your magic so much that you fell right to sleep soon after changing them. Probably the effort of absorbing my elemental attack into his sword, however he managed to do it, was enough to drain his mental reserves in a similar fashion."

Syaoran turned back to examine Sakura's new acquaintance more intently, using his senses in an effort to further detect any internal lack of magic on Reios's part. The almost pitiful amount of power that remained to the man was a good enough verification of his guess, "Your power, at first, will be weak and unfocused. However, as you continue to use it, it should become easier to manipulate and control, until your spiritual limitations can grow to handle the strain." Reios nodded to himself as the bits and pieces started to fall back into place again.

"Well, now that we've got that figured out... what do we do about her?" Reios then asked sleepily, nodding his head in the unconscious demon's direction. As though cued by mention of herself, the demon stirred, groaning as she struggled for conscious thought. She rolled over onto her backside with a push of her left hand, unaware of her situation or position, trying to discern why she was lying in the middle of a... children's playground? The darkening sky did little to help her check her surroundings.

A flash of metal fell into view, causing the demon to instinctively freeze into place as Syaoran's sword moved to point at her neck. Wide-eyed and frightened, she sat up on her elbows as she attempted to back away slowly from the eminent danger before her, "Please, stay your weapon! I mean you no harm!"

Reios crossed his arms, though he was forced to lean up against the King Penguin slide in order to support his tired frame. Giving the demon a look of disbelief that said he knew better, he uttered, "I hope you'll forgive me if I don't exactly believe that."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't run you through right now," Syaoran followed up, his voice a low growl, dark and menacing. He pulled his arm back a bit, gaining momentum for a piercing strike, yet his arm was unable to respond to his commands when Sakura's hand placed itself gently on his shoulder. The look he received from her told him not to do anything rash, but he was well beyond that point.

He glared back at the demon below him, "You tried to kill her! Why shouldn't I try to kill you in turn? Answer me!"

A gentle squeeze on his shoulder told Syaoran that he was going too far, but the rage within him was too strong to ignore. This demon, or whatever she was, had just attempted to kill the very person he cared for, and had quite nearly succeeded at that. He would _not –_ and _could_ not – let that go unchallenged. He glared deep into the demon's eyes, searching her soul for an answer that she seemed unwilling to give up.

What he found there was a genuine fear. A fear that she was about to be killed. A fear that something had gone horribly wrong. She was genuinely begging for her life to be spared, if only through an intent gaze. There was also something else, deeper within... regret, perhaps? Regret for having reasoned to attack them, instead of the malice that had been embedded into those same reasons. He smiled inwardly, figuring that Sakura would be able to notice such things before anyone else, though his actual facial features remained as hard as a carved stone. He eventually backed off, lowering his arm until his sword's tip tinged quietly against the ground.

Freed from the threat of death, the demon pushed herself up fully to sit with her legs astride of herself, taking a moment to wipe away a tear that had begun to roll before speaking, "Such travesties that I have incurred, that I would be forfeit of life... truly, I beg your forgiveness, for all I have done against you."

Sakura kneeled down slowly, wanting to comfort the injured soul before her, yet her full awareness of what this one had just attempted kept her at bay. Instead, she just asked, "Who are you?"

The demon looked up at Sakura's genuinely concerned expression, then cast her eyes about at each face gathered near. The air was still tense, hostile even, yet she sensed no further ill will from these four humans. She smiled against her fear and sadness, in awe that they would worry for her even after all she had tried to do, and so addressed her former opponent's question, "I suppose there is much more to explain than just who I am. If you will allow, I would explain my very purpose here."


	15. Together Again

_2-5b: Together Again_

Sakura kneeled down slowly, wanting to comfort the injured soul before her, yet her full awareness of what this one had just attempted kept her at bay. Instead, she just asked, "Who are you?"

The demon looked up at Sakura's genuinely concerned expression, then cast her eyes about at each face gathered near. The air was still tense, hostile even, yet she sensed no further ill will from these four humans. She smiled against her fear and sadness, in awe that they would worry for her even after all she had tried to do, and so addressed her former opponent's question, "I suppose there is much more to explain than just who I am. If you will allow, I would explain my very purpose here."

So as not to alarm anyone, the demon shifted her position gingerly, rising up slowly from the ground until she stood fully before her four former adversaries, towering over both of the two six-foot-one boys by at least another foot. Finally feeling at ease, Sakura took a moment to better examine what she saw before her, and what she found were striking similarities to her Windy card's physical form. With flowing, light green robes, and pine-green hair covering long, pointed ears belonging to that of a fantasy-world elf, the only thing she was really missing were the trailing wisps of magical wind that often accompanied Windy's true form. Even her pale, immaculately youthful skin had a slightly green tint to it. Her eyes were a deep emerald, which Sakura found to be slightly enchanting.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the demon began, "Who I am would be best described as what I am, for I am what you would call a terrestrial spirit. My very life's essence is aligned and inseparably intertwined with that of the four cardinal winds. Though, once upon a time, I was little more than a simple woodland maiden of the race of the elves, whom you now believe to be as mere myth and legend. Now existent only as an elemental being, I was summoned here along with my sibling spirits, and all of us against our wills.

"Long ago, we were corrupted, tainted, and made insane by that which had tried to control us. A trick of words forged from a time-honored Pact, an agreement between human and magic that was then unknowingly turned against us. Once placed under control, and being lawfully required to obey, we were then set against the greatest threat to whomever had darkened us so. He whom we were once set to destroy, in that time long past, went by the name of Clow Reed."

Everyone's eyes snapped wide at the repeated mention of that name, as once again they found themselves caught up in something of his design. The demon (spirit, elf, whatever) continued, "One by one, we challenged Clow Reed to battle, as was set forth by our new master. We fought separately, and in turn of each other, to hopefully draw out the conflict and eventually drain his power. And one by one, we were defeated, each of us just as easily as the last. Yet rather than destroy us, as should have been the case, Clow Reed instead chose to seal us all away for our misdeeds. He even took to imprisoning the wielder of the Pact, intending that we would all one day be saved. Instead, within reach of the influence of our now unwanted master, our minds were made warped and twisted, our ideals and goals forming together with our dark lord into something I... wish never to experience again.

"Within our prisons, crystalline stones designed by your predecessor, we focused both our powers and our tainted thoughts. At one time, the seal had started to weaken, and then at a time later, had shattered completely. Judging by the powers you wield, I would assume that Clow Reed's magic has passed on to a new generation, and thus was no longer able to power the seals upon our cells.

"With Clow Reed no longer living, and our minds now freed, our master ordered us to seek not only revenge, but to also complete the task that we had failed in before, which was to eliminate all threats to his goals. And yet the two tasks are one and the same. As the wielder of Clow Reed's magic, you and those who fight alongside you have all been labeled as dangers to his plans. It is for this purpose that I called to you, and then attacked you. All so that my former master's plans would be realized."

"Wait," Syaoran interrupted, "you said 'former' master. What do you mean by that?"

The elf-like female turned to face him, "Whether it was the powers you set against me, or the work of some other design, I know not. Yet, for once, my mind feels clear. I no longer feel the weight of his presence, even within the furthest reaches of my soul. However it was accomplished, his hold upon me has been cut away. I would like to believe that you all had something to do with it, and I will be eternally grateful to you for it."

The terrestrial spirit then closed her eyes and grew silent for a moment, her mind focusing upon something that was as yet unseen to the others, "I can sense that the third of your kind has just now released one of my sibling spirits, much as you have done for me. This pleases me greatly, and I can only hope that you have a similar success with the rest of us."

Syaoran hesitated a moment, that the elf before him was suggesting there would be more conflict to come, yet eventually asked, "How many of you are there? And what do you mean by the 'third' of our kind?"

Her eyes slid back half-open to his query, as she was still focusing on whatever it was she could sense. She addressed him, "Of our elements, there are sev–"

Her eyes flared wide open in tandem with her interrupted speech, with an unseen horror engulfing her entire being. Just as quickly she screwed her eyes shut in a desperate attempt to keep a hold of what was left of that being. With her hands grasping at her head in pain, she slowly fell to her knees as she cowered away from whatever fears that had now gripped her so. She released a wavering outcry of denial before being able to speak, "No! He comes again, he seeks for me, he would reclaim me! I do not wish to serve him! No, seal me away, I beseech you! Lock me away from his sickening grasp!"

"Hey, hey, slow down, what's going on?" Syaoran asked, growing anxious as the elf's level of panic increased, "Who's after you?"

Her reply was shrill in tone, and emanated from both herself and the winds around them, "No, no! Make haste and seal me away! Away from him! I and my sibling spirits, seal us from him!"

It was of no use. Whatever it was that now sought after her was already winning in a battle of the minds. Her screams and groans were already starting to summon forth a new bout of windstorms, the corrupted gales throwing themselves about with each horror-induced throw of her head. It was obvious that such winds were not of her own, conscious making, this time.

Syaoran turned to Sakura, going along with the only thing he knew would work, based on the spirit's demands, "You need to reseal it into a prison before whatever is attacking it takes control again. Hurry!"

"What about a separation of being?" Reios put in quickly, stepping up before Sakura could act, or even speak, "If I'm remembering my studies right, power attracts power, which would explain all of us, but that's beside the point. What if we removed that aspect from this one? With no power to track it by, its master will have no control over it!"

Syaoran had no idea how Reios could have come up with something like that on the spot, especially considering that he should have been asleep by now. Not that he really cared at the moment, though, because the truth remained in that Reios was right. He nodded sharply to Sakura, then stepped back to allow her the room she needed.

Focusing deep within herself, Sakura searched within her magic for the words that she would need, calling her power into play for each syllable that was spoken, "Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Skies, be disjoined!"

The very fabric of space itself began to warp around the spirit, pulling its entire physical form into a singular, yet distorted point. The sight of it was unnerving to watch, even a bit sickening, as the elven wind spirit's body was simultaneously twisted in several different directions all at once while still being sucked into that singular spot before them, all of which would normally have been impossible to achieve without self-injury. The distorted visuals of space-time twisted and twirled all of reality itself into a whirlpool of light and mass. A small blast of wind shot past them as the warped space suddenly imploded in upon itself, taking the female elf along with it. In its wake, there was left behind a patch of electrified atmosphere, which seemed to be glowing with a faint green aura.

Below the aura, there fell to the ground a green crystalline orb, its body glowing a gentle emerald against the shining light of the swiftly-rising half-moon.

"Is that..." Sakura started, still not completely sure of what she had just accomplished.

"The mind of the spirit that was just sealed away," Syaoran told her, answering the unfinished question. He watched carefully as Sakura knelt down and grabbed at the orb to examine it closely and thoroughly. Instinct immediately told him that he should yell at her to put such a dangerous object down, yet he knew that the spirit no longer meant any harm. Without its magic, it was powerless anyway. It was now back to where it had been before his mission had started.

Dispelling his tension, Syaoran looked up and eyed the glowing aura carefully, "We still need to do something with its strength. Until this aura is dissipated, whatever is after the spirit can still attack it."

Tomoyo crept around and made her way back towards the group, carefully recording whatever it was that Syaoran was indicating. She saw nothing through the lens of her camera except for evening sky and the trees of the playground's perimeter, even though she knew it was because she had no magical power with which to see it. She opened her free eye and glanced at him, "And how do we do that?"

"A simple magic attack should do the trick," he replied after some thought. Sakura pulled out a card almost immediately, once again conjuring up her power to summon it.

"Dispel the power that remains before me! Windy!"

The wind avatar flared into being, the various wisps and strands of elemental wind coalescing to complete the physical form that so resembled the wind spirit that they had just sealed away. After a moment, it turned towards the terrestrial spirit's discarded aura, and with a focused blast of wind scattered the remains of that spirit's power away and into the upper atmosphere of the planet, at which point the natural winds could take care of the rest. A fitting departure for the power of a wind spirit.

Sakura pocketed the Windy once it had converted back to a card, then once again examined the green orb that she still held within her hands. She smiled gently at it, hoping that the elf-like wind spirit resting within could still hear her, "We'll save your friends, you'll see. You'll be back together again in no time." She held it there a moment longer, then dropped her arms to her sides as a new thought came to her along a similar topic. She soon turned to face Syaoran – whom had continued to watch her with a gentle smile – with an intent-filled gaze.

And after a moment of her incessant staring, that smile faded away to be replaced by a frown of confusion. Syaoran's mind wanted to throw concern into the mix, but his heart wouldn't allow it. Instead, he focused his thoughts to discerning as to why she might be staring at him the way she was. Trying to figure out if he was actually there, perhaps? Having been gone for three years, only to return under such dire circumstances, he would have been completely shocked out of his mind too. But there was something else, something about her pose, the look in her eyes, that reminded him of something.

An image of his cousin Meiling popped into his head abruptly, with the instinct kicking in to brace for impact.

He stumbled back hard as she slammed into him, grabbing onto him in a tight hug. Somehow he managed to recover his balance, placing a foot back behind him to fend off the inertia of the tackle, but he still ended up getting pushed back a few meters. He couldn't help but smile, however, a warm feeling rising up from within him as he returned the embrace gently. It had been a long and trying three years since had been able to do this, and he intended to relish the moment for as long as he could.

"You're here!" he heard her whisper, her hold on him growing ever tighter almost to the point of being painful. He dealt with it, though, allowing her to hold him so tightly if it made her happy. At the moment, aside from being able to hold her in return, that was all he cared for.

"You're finally here..."

Hidden away behind her as it was, she could nonetheless sense the gentle smile within his words, "My requirement of being in Hong Kong is finally over. This time... I intend on staying."

To the side of the two lovers, Reios and Tomoyo stood silently in the background, kindly grins upon their own features – even though one was half hidden away by a typical gray camera – as they watched the pair hold each other underneath the gentle light of the half-formed moon and sparkling stars.

Witnesses to the long-awaited reunion.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*= =*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

_End, Chapter 2_


	16. Encroaching Darkness

**Chapter 3 – Celestial Trinity  


* * *

  
**

_3-1: Encroaching Darkness_

The evening sky was a bit cooler than was normal for this time of year, and considerably more so seeing as they were flying through it at a decently high altitude. At this height, they could still make out all of the people upon the ground below them: those walking along the streets; riding bicycles; rushing to their homes; to whatever chores these people were required to attend to. Yet against the glare of the evening sun, and combined with a slight touch of ancient magic, they themselves were as unheeded by these people as would be a common bird.

She banked left softly, riding the gentle winds to save what little energy remained to her after their long, intercontinental flight. On a whim, she dropped in behind her flying companion to ride along the sweep back of his wings. This, in turn, allowed her an unobstructed rear-side view of her master. With nothing better to do, she found herself idly examining him for probably the twelfth time since having departed from England almost six hours ago.

He had grown decently well for a man of his "official" age, with his requirement of being a child having long since passed. His glossy, bluish-black hair was growing out nicely, too. It was almost down to about shoulder length now, tied back behind him into a single, thick pony-tail, just like from "before". Personally, though, she would have used a braided approach as opposed to a pony-tail hairstyle. Maybe she would have even split the hair into pig tails. But of course, she didn't have to worry about gender-specific styling. Her master did, which was a true shame. She could have done wonders with that hair.

He was still wearing the same old robes that he had worn all those years ago as a child, as well, as they had been enhanced with a simple spell to grow and re-tailor themselves as he grew. Her memories fell back to those times long gone by, and soon she found herself inexplicably wondering why he had chosen to do things as cumbersomely as he had, and regardless that he had explained the reason to her on several separate occasions since then. Even if it was for the fulfillment of a dead man's wishes, he still could have chosen a less painful route for the chosen successor. In the end, it had all been for his own personal enjoyment as much as for said dead man's wishes, almost to the point that such enjoyment had taken precedence over the real purpose behind those trials. Still, fun times were fun times, so she chose not to complain.

She banked back to the right to ease away from the small gusts of wind trailing from her companion's wings, following her master and that companion over the field of trees and forest that were set within the familiar site known as the Tsukimine Shrine. She tilted back to gain a slight altitude, raising her head so that she was eye-level with her master. She then banked in closer to speak out over the whistling call of the winds.

"If we were supposed to avoid forested patches of land, then why are we flying over one now?" she called out, snapping her master out of some form of reverie.

He looked around himself to verify his location, before looking back to address the question, "It is because we have already been found out, as well as have our other friends. Our purpose of evasion was to sneak our way in, but it would seem this is no longer possible. Now, we will simply try to save some time."

He held his gaze to study his winged companion for a moment more, a crimson beauty by any regard. His right to think as such, seeing as this was how he has created her. Flowing red hair to match an equally flowing red silk dress and ruby red eyes, as well as black butterfly wings with red-patterned eyes on the tips. A decent to good opposite to her "original", if he did say so himself. She was pretty easy on the eyes, too.

"However," came the low-toned growl from his other companion, the one that he rode atop of, "it would seem that our approach is not welcomed. Look below; the trees are beckoning to us."

He looked to his flying mount for a moment: a large black panther with equally elegant butterfly wings to match his partner, though his were granted blue-colored eye patterns to balance the pair out. He also wore a silver chest plate adorned with a large blue diamond to match the smaller one embedded into his forehead. All of this served to balance out against _his_ "original".

"Eriol, do you want us to go down and investigate?" the winged woman asked of him, causing him to look down upon the forest that they had come to hover over. It had indeed grown dark, though not with the fading sunlight. It was instead wrapped within an increasingly dark aura of power. An ancient and corrupted energy, not quite active, but it was growing by the minute in both strength and intensity. It wouldn't be long before it finally erupted, awakening the bearer of that power. There was no way he could let that go uninterrupted. Besides, he was bored out of his mind from the long trip.

Eriol closed his eyes and prayed that the others would be all right without him. Boredom aside, he had been hoping to avoid any manner of confrontation until they could all be gathered together, instead of separated and thus easily picked off, but it seemed that this task could not be avoided, unfortunately. Taking in a deep, calming breath, he looked to his two companions and issued his orders, "It would seem that conflict is inevitable today. Let us go down and deal with the menace within the forest. However, Spinel, Ruby, this is a strength that came close to being equivalent to the power of my former self. We must be careful."

The two guardians nodded in agreement, easing back the angle of their wings so as to drop down in altitude. They took to the descent slowly and controlled, as they continued to observe the growing darkness within the trees. Eriol closed his eyes again, and almost laughed to himself. Somehow, he considered it ironic that they would fight their foe above his old stomping grounds, under the witness of the Shrine's patron deity that rested within the old cherry tree. The same place as where it had been fought before.

Then he felt it – a sudden surge of power far off within the city, dark and disturbing. It was all too similar to the power that he felt within the forest below, and that had him concerned. What if they had decided to attack all at once? However, what concerned him even more so than such a potential disaster was that he could sense _her_ presence moving fast to intercept this second threat. There was also something else with her, though through the power of the two corrupted forces at work he couldn't be completely sure as to its identity. He could only hope that it was the one for whom he was supposed to search.

Spinel flapped his wings down to stop his descent, holding his altitude steady with a minute trace of magic. Ruby moved to mimic him, hovering herself some several meters above the highest of the treetops. Already those trees were changing, mutating in tune with the powers now infused within them. They shook and wailed angrily at the sky, or rather at the three floating figures that were above and out of their reach, as though possessed. Each branch was slashing and snapping savagely against the wind and its inhabitants.

Eriol sighed to himself before awakening his inner power. He had very much been hoping to avoid this situation. Now he would have to instead hope that she could survive long enough for him to deal with this threat and move on to assist her. Even then, there was no sure guarantee that he himself would succeed here, which made things all that much worse for him. It suddenly made him long for the hours of boredom he had endured on the ride here. Still, there was something about that other feeling near her that was giving him the sense of hope that he so desired at that moment.

Swinging himself overtop his mount to sit astride of Spinel, he focused his energies under the soles of his shoes. The air rearranged itself beneath him, his arcane power restructuring matter itself so as to serve as an invisible ground on which to stand. The winged panther sensed this, and craned his neck back to stare at the magic being worked.

"Do you intend to fight with us?" he asked.

Eriol nodded, "We will need to fight together to defeat this one. Still, we will have our work cut out for us, so let's not waste any more time than we have to. Shall we get started?"

Spinel nodded, taking up a flanking position on Eriol's left to mirror Ruby's right-flanking position, the two holding back as Eriol prepared himself for battle. Atop his magic platform of solid air, he scanned the forest over once again before reaching into his pocket to retrieve his golden key – the symbol of a golden sun overtop a crescent moon set as the key's bow.

A wind different from that of the natural gales from before surged up around him, answering the call to his power as a golden circle of magic appeared beneath him. Those magical winds spiraled along the circle's edge, growing ever higher, ever stronger, as he began the familiar chant.

"Key that hides the powers of the Dark..."

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

A small flash of light combined with a flurry of feathers and wings saw Kerberos reverting back into his false form even as he was still sailing along the winds at his original speed. It was all he could do after that just to ease his pace so as not to crash into anything. With the situation that was at hand, however, he almost _didn't_ want to slow down. Instead he banked hard left to just barely swerve around the trunk of a tree, and dived for the house with the open window.

He shot through and landed on a wooden surface with a loud thud, being forced to used some of his magic to brace against the harsh landing. He glanced around quickly, noting that he was in the kitchen, and that dinner was already set. He shoved the thought of food out of his mind before it could even enter, and looked for his target. Unfortunately, though, only Touya was seated at the table, looking up from some small booklet he was reading as he ate to check on all the commotion.

A flash of blue and silver went across an open door to his left, making Kero shoot after it. It seemed that Yue had also noticed the dark emanations from the park, and had pushed Yukito into action. He flew up and through the door as Yukito threw on his coat and shoes, and followed the snow-rabbit out as Yukito took off from the front door at a dead run. Within moments of leaving the garden's front gate, they were both changing into their true forms, taking to the evening skies and flying at full speed towards the Penguin Park.

Back within the Tsukishiro residence, Touya stopped pretending to read the pamphlet and tossed it off to the side into a pile of several similar booklets, a soft grunt escaping him as he watched it skip over the top of that pile and onto the floor. He laid his chopsticks along the rim of his rice bowl, and allowed his head to fall back as his mind started to wander.

Suddenly he found himself wishing that he could have his powers back, for maybe then he could have at least understood what all the fuss was about. In his rush to obey Yue's commands, Yuki had failed to even let slip a single word of what was going on. And yet, Touya didn't need his powers to understand the haste that Yue had demanded from his false-form persona. Something huge was going down, that much was obvious, and it was all the more obvious that his little sister was involved. Yue would not have forced Yuki to act, otherwise.

Touya stood up from the table with a heavy sigh, and started into gathering up the half-eaten dishes left behind by himself and his departed companion. Everything had been going so well these last few years, with no incidents, no mysterious witches or sorcerers, and no dangerous magics to defeat. He and Yuki had even managed to start up their own job-counseling business, thanks to their constant job-shifting all those years ago. Straight out of college graduation, no less, and they had been doing quite well for themselves at that.

Of course, then this had to start up. Whatever it was. He could only pray that it didn't interfere with their currently scheduled meetings.

_Why do things always have to start looking bad just when they start to look up? _he thought to himself.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	17. The Cavalry

_3-2: The Cavalry_

Already they were a quarter of the way to the park forest, which was just close enough for them to be able to clearly sense out their mistress's presence. In what little time they had spent in flight, Kerberos had already managed to relay to Yue what he had learned of their current situation, from the dream that Sakura had seen about two new books and Clow Reed, to the new kid with a magic key that was linked to one of those books. Kerberos specifically mentioned how this Reios person had an amazing potential for wielding Light-based magic, even though most of it had been suppressed by an equally amazing magical seal. For Yue, however, this only brought up far more questions than he cared to have at the moment.

"It's just a little too perfect, if you ask me," Kerberos growled quietly, "Sakura has a weird, prophetic dream, some new guy shows up toting a new book that's based off of Clow's magic, and then we get this mystery of a presence announcing itself to the entire city, almost. It's not just a coincidence, and you know what that means."

Yue voiced his agreement, "It is obvious that Clow's hand has played a part in this. Whether this will all end up being another one of his schemes or not is another matter altogether. For now, though, all that matters is that we must see to our mistress's safety... Why must she always be the target of such powerful magicks..." he added at the end, muttering more to himself than to his sibling, though Kerberos hummed inquisitively to himself all the same.

Their flight path took them directly over the commercial sectors of the city and aimed them straight towards the park, with Yue guessing their destination to be just a few minutes away, as the crow flew. At this distance, he was now able to also sense out other presences surrounding his mistress, even against the shrouding darkness that continually threatened to block him out. There were two in all: the weakest, non-magical one most likely being Tomoyo, the girl that was always following Sakura around. The other he couldn't recognize, though it held an active magical power that was significantly weaker than his mistress's. He extrapolated that this was likely the new sorcerer that Kerberos had discovered. It was then that he noticed his master's power suddenly falling away into oblivion, and his mind raced to determine the potential cause.

Distracted as he was on Sakura's condition, he didn't notice that his magic was being reflected away until it was too late. His mind's eye snapped back into his body unwillingly, causing him to come to a complete stop in mid-air as he shot his senses back out into the night. He could immediately tell that he had been purposefully shut out, that his carelessness in actively scanning the park region had alerted their foe to his presence. Both he and Kerberos made to resume their original pace, if not to outright best it, so that they could arrive to assist their mistress all the sooner.

Until they were stopped not even a couple of minutes later by an overwhelmingly powerful presence washing over them, a presence that was eerily similar to the one that they had felt from the park only a short time ago. Kerberos was the first one to discover this new power's origin point: the Tsukimine Shrine. A familiar place, where some of their fondest memories of Clow had been made, of them sleeping beneath the old cherry tree in times long before the shrine had even existed. There was another familiarity lingering there as well, within that shrine, though this one was within the present time. Kerberos found himself quite disturbed at the fact that this familiarity's presence was starting to fade away from a protracted output of magic-induced effort.

Yue shot a side glance over to his partner, looking for verification. Kerberos, who could easily tell what Yue was thinking, glanced back, "It's him."

Kerberos found himself caught within a situation that he had never thought possible: to fly to the aid of Sakura and her friends, or to ensure the survival of his old master. His loyalties were deeply rooted with Sakura now, of that he was absolutely certain. But a small voice that resonated from deep within was trying to convince him that an old and beloved friend was in desperate need of help. Between the two, he couldn't decide, swinging hesitant glances back and forth between the two power struggles.

Yue, the more calm and collected of the two, sensed out both situations and judged the situation accordingly. Firstly, he found that he could once again sense out his mistress's location. Somehow, the barrier that had been blocking his mind's eye had been lifted. Sakura's previously-obliterated magicks seemed to have recovered themselves in full, and to top it off, it seemed as though her new friend's power had fully awakened, as well. He could now also sense the presence of a third person with them, that being the Clow-descendant boy that Sakura seemed to be so fond of. Between the three of them, their combined powers now exceeded that of the darkness that they confronted, if only just barely. From this, he reasoned that his mistress was now safe from harm.

Then there was Clow's wavering presence that was off in the other direction, its magic slowly fading away for each moment that passed, and with no signs of improvement against the darkness he likely fought. Yue could also sense the two guardians that always accompanied him, though they themselves didn't seen to be faring any better. In the end, perhaps it was just a desire to see his old master again, new form or not, but he had made up his mind all the same. Besides, he had vowed to Touya to protect Sakura, and he took such a vow seriously and in every sense that he could imagine. To let one of Sakura's friends be defeated would make her sad, and this was something that Yue could not allow. To protect his mistress, through all possible meanings – this was his justification.

There was also the consideration that if his former master fell to the corrupted energies that he was combatting, then those energies might choose to go after Sakura next. The magical barrier that had temporarily locked his mind away from her had also likely locked her senses away from the rest of the world, and it would have made her incapable of sensing out the second presence. It was as though it had all been timed so that she would be left unawares of the arrival of the second threat, and of the massive wave of energy that its awakening had generated. She would be unprepared for its arrival, and too worn out from her first encounter to be able to defend against it. Because of this new thought, Yue no longer needed to justify his reasoning to abandon his mistress. This second threat _needed_ to be dealt with, _before_ it had a chance to endanger her.

Kerberos was giving him a kind of defeated look, and it was saying that he didn't feel comfortable leaving Sakura on her own, but Yue had still already decided. Sakura, together with the combined strength of her new found companions, would be fine, but Clo– no, _Eriol_ needed their help. His only regret was that he had no way to tell his mistress that help was not going to be coming. Not that she needed help, at this point, but Yue still wished that he could shake off the thin feeling of betrayal that had somehow embedded itself within him.

Kerberos got the gist of it and turned himself about, diving in low along the building roofs, and then green-leafed forests, to follow Yue as he led the way towards the shrine grounds. On the approach to the forests held sacred by the shrine, Kerberos's feline eyes picked up some movement above the trees. They were hectic and restricted, as if whatever was there were engaged in some kind of fighting. At this distance, there was no denying that it was Eriol, simply by the sheer power he was giving off now. Yet for as much energy as he was using, it could only mean that he was in trouble.

Closing in enough to be able to hear the conflict taking its course only verified what they had originally feared: Eriol, along with his two personal guardians, was under attack. Those two guardians were valiantly positioned along the front lines, fending off the forest's corrupted magic with everything that they had, while Eriol was meanwhile supporting them from above with large and continuous infusions of his magic. The strange part of it all was that the very trees themselves were the aggressors, lashing out with overgrown vines and mutated branches. It was something out of a horror movie, almost. Horror or not, though, they wasted no time at charging in for the rescue.

Kerberos kept down low, banking hard right to come up underneath Spinel just as the black panther was being pulled right out of the sky by a mass of thrashing vines. Feeling the heat well up within him, Kerberos released a breath of flame straight into the core of those vines, burning through them as though they were made of little more than paper. The backlash of sudden freedom sent Spinel shooting far above the fray, with Kerberos following quickly behind in retreat.

Yue, meanwhile, shot high above the chaos, watching silently as his red-haired counterpart hacked and slashed her way through the various branches and vines that stretched to meet her. It was useless to struggle in that manner, though, for he knew that the vines would just continually regrow and eventually even overwhelm her – such was the nature of that element. Raising his hand up, his eyes lost focus as he concentrated on the entire area around her. It took only a minimal effort to lock his mind onto the body of each strand of plant that was rushing out from the treetops. A sharp cry saw the release of a flurried rush of crystalline shards, each one equivalent to the destructive force of a bullet, and each one meeting its target accurately to sever every vine that sought to pull the retreating Ruby Moon into the darkness below.

While unexpected, the sudden rescue was nonetheless a welcome relief to the battle efforts that the two dark guardians had been putting out. Freed from the struggles of combat, the four of them flew up and out of reach of their enemy to regroup with Eriol. Eriol grinned at the appearance of his old compatriots, as they were a welcome addition to his struggle. All the same, his want to question their presence was strong, considering that he was just as aware of Sakura's current predicament as the two light guardians also likely were.

Unfortunately, his questions were interrupted by a shrill wail erupting from the ground below, a wail that shook the very air around them. The wail toned down into a growl, then further still into a groaning of bending branches and twisting vines. Both wood and plant were stretching against their natural designs to open up a hole through the forest canopy. A pair of golden, glowing eyes rose up from that darkened opening, followed by a floating, humanoid body composed completely of wood and bark. The dark brown "skin" of the creature offset the green of the vines and leaves that made up its flowing, waist-length hair.

Those golden eyes scanned the group above it, eventually finding the young man that was orchestrating the opposition. Those eyes locked onto him fiercely, intently examining his level-headed expression. That soft, all-knowing grin pestered at its thoughts, the look of him tugging and tickling at a memory far within its mind. There were differences, yes. Several in fact, not the least of which was his apparent age and change of robe design. Yet the power that it could feel, and that expression of sheer confidence that radiated from him despite the odds. There was no mistaking it.

The tree-creature's childish voice rang out over the forested canopy, "Be damned, the lot of you! Be damned, those who would seek to injure and defile my forests! Be damned, he who would return to mock me yet again! Clow Reed, begone with you and your foul companions. Your chance has passed!"

Eriol's eyebrow twitched irritably, though he should have expected as much. Even though he knew that his words would make no difference towards the outcome, he felt compelled to inform it of its errors, "I believe you are mistaken, my dear wood nymph. I am not the same as he who had imprisoned you before. Clow Reed has long since lain dead. I am merely the heir to his power."

"Do not think to fool me, human sorcerer!" the nymph shot back, proving his prediction by apparently not taking his words as truth, "There is no mistaking the stench of your power. Though you lack your pet beings, and only carry with you these four, soulless ones, you are who I say you are. There is no denying this truth!"

"A half-truth, if anything," Eriol continued, flowing through the conversation calmly, and almost wishing he had a cup of tea to go with it, "for I am not Clow Reed, but his reincarnation. Granted, my power was originally a part of Clow Reed himself, but now it is a descendant power, passed on from his ancient time and unto me so that I may continue his purpose in this life. The revenge that you likely seek is both unfounded and unattainable."

The wood nymph raged violently, its entire form quivering with the fury that it shrieked out into the night. It was stubbornly refusing to accept the truth that it was being handed, "No! I will not hear it! You _are_ Clow Reed! This is all too obvious! And for daring to defeat me a second time, I will have your life snuffed from existence! Not even your two new pets will aid you today. Let nature's wrath see the forests watered with your blood!"

Before more words could be exchanged, the spirit had pulled itself back into the forest, with the gap it had occupied already being filled with yet more mutated vines and scythe-like branches. Snatch, slash, and flail as they would, though, there was simply too much distance between them and their targets for them to be of any use. Yet to end this threat, and deal with the nymph itself, Eriol and his entourage would have to go right into the forest and confront that spirit head on. That meant making it through the mess of vines that were currently blocking his path.

"I wish I could explain all of this to you, Yue, Kerberos. But for now matters require our attention to be drawn to this threat. We must stop this nymph's rampaging before it can be unleashed upon the public of the city. Kerberos, Spinel, fly hard and straight for the edges of the shrine grounds, but fly in opposite directions. Once there, combine your powers to flush it out of the forest. The rest of us will distract the bulk of its focus from your intentions until you can succeed. Once the nymph is out in the open, we will take advantage of whatever opportunity presents itself. Waste no further time, go!"

The two feline beings snapped into motion, responding to the commands of their master and quickly disappearing into opposite ends of the encroaching night. This left Yue and Ruby Moon to deal with the main threat that was presenting itself against Eriol, yet this would pose as no problem for them. Both of them had known their master for a long, long time, and they were both very much aware of what he would ask of them.

Eriol's arm stretched up into the sky, the golden staff in his hands glowing a deep red as his power manifested itself visibly, flowing from his own being and into his personal guardian. Yue took to the hint and drew up the reserves of power within his own well of magic, quietly apologizing to Touya for having to sap him of this much energy. Thus, with both guardians as prepared for the attack as they were going to be, Eriol pointed his staff towards the trees and fired a thin bolt of energy into the mix to stir things into motion.

The attack ran against a massive pillar of vines that had begun to form, its power exploding upon contact and sending multiple tendrils of severed vines flying off in all sorts of directions. Both guardians quickly followed up, charging straight into the fray with arms glowing wildly under the full force of their power, forming up twin blades as sharp as any sword. They didn't allow that mass of plant life even a sliver of a chance to regroup from its losses, hacking into the core of the vines with an efficiency far beyond that of any mere mortal. Five seconds into their assault saw them as already being half-completed in their work of clearing away the initial wave.

Eriol attempted to shout out a warning from his position above them, and even shot off wave after crimson wave of energy bolts to counter the ambush. Yet through the chaos of battle, the two winged warriors failed to notice that while their pillar of vines was swiftly being hacked away, it was just as swiftly being replaced by a cage of vines. An oversized, spherical cage that was stealthily closing itself up around the two. By the time they were able to detect their position as compromised, it was too late for the two guardians to commit to any form of retreat.

Yue and Ruby regrouped in the center of the trap before bolting straight up into what should have been the weakest part of the structure. Focusing their energies into a single cutting force, what should have completely cleared the way only ended up slicing a thin layer of plant life away from their cage. Defeated, they dropped back down into the center of their prison, and attempted to keep the attacking tendrils at bay as best they could.

A muffled struggle sounded out from above their position, easily recognized as Eriol's voice. Through the bond that was shared between master and guardian, Ruby could tell – without looking away from her struggle – that he had been captured, most likely due to a rescue attempt on his behalf. He was being pulled into the fray even against the full force of his power, and yet here she was floating helplessly trapped within this jungle-like cage. The helplessness of the situation served only to fuel a growing rage within her, forcefully increasing her draw of power from both her master and her element, with both the night and the moon adding to her potential.

Yue felt the surging of power within her, and he managed to back off just in time to avoid a detonation of power that sent a bladed circle of energy rushing away from her. It sliced into the sides of the cage effortlessly, racing and expanding away from her to cut open a path for their escape. The roof of their cage fell into shambles as a result, and they wasted no time in taking advantage of it.

As the first to fight through the remnants of the plant-like walls, Yue immediately set loose a barrage of crystalline shards. Specks of silver and white, sparkling like jewels in the pale light of the half-moon, flew their way back in towards the fray that he had just departed. Many of the vine-like ropes that had tied Eriol to his impending doom were severed instantly, yet in response to the best efforts put forth by both guardians, the trees below continually sent out reinforcements for each vine they took down. In the end, it served little towards freeing their master, who was still being pulled out of his perch in the sky.

So instead the two guardians focused their powers again, preparing themselves to charge straight into the very forest itself to deal with the threat. If they could not eliminate it from above, they would just have to go in and deal with it at the source.

A low growling emerged from all directions, stopping the pair from attempting their desperate charge. The rumbling cry blanketed both the forest and the connected sky with the feral rage that was about to be released. The three floating above the trees knew the two calls well, the human of the three grinning faintly as the advantage shifted over towards their favor.

A twin barrage of flame, one dark and focused, the other light and wild, swept across the entirety the forest in a wide, arcing motion, setting not the wood and leaves alight but rather the magical aura that was covering them. The forest burned brightly as the energies that were consuming the trees were themselves consumed, forcing a cry of both agony and rage from the hidden nymph that was controlling it all.

That nymph erupted out of the forest as Eriol had predicted it would, and it was enraged beyond all measure. Its arms and hair swirled all about in the forms of wooden blades and whips of vines, using the bulk of its magic to propel itself skyward. It's target was obviously the still-entangled Eriol, and both guardians were too far away to have any chance at a timely interception. Its forests would soon feel the bloodbath that it so craved them to have.

Fortunately, one of them didn't require having to be nearby. With a fluidic grace befitting shining beams of moonlight, a silvered arrow flew straight and true from Yue's open arms, taking advantage of the nymph's self-blinding rage to pierce it straight through its heart. Its resulting plummet to the ground brought with it the collapse of its power, releasing Eriol from his entrapment. The flames that had brightly lit the forest soon burned themselves out as well, with the source of their fuel having been defeated. The silence that followed along behind the crackling of flames and gnashing of vines and branches was almost too much to bear, by comparison to the commotion of battle from before.

"Let us follow," said the young sorcerer quietly, releasing his power to allow for a slow descent. Still not quite sure that it was safe to enter the forest, the two angel guardians quickly sped their way ahead of him, entering the forest first to ensure that the level of risk was acceptable.

Eriol landed quietly behind his four protectors, with Spinel Sun and Kerberos having already regrouped on their position only seconds ago, and meticulously scanned the ground around him for any signs of the nymph. Yet despite all of his efforts, he could hear nothing of its life signs, even with his senses being enhanced by magic. Leaning his staff up against a nearby tree, he paced about the small clearing they inhabited while extending his mind out to the further reaches of the forest. The presence of the nymph was still near, at least, though it was weak and unfocused even as it slowly made to regain its strength. Perhaps it had yet to regain consciousness from Yue's attack?

"That he who had once condemned us would now be the one to try and save us," came the weak voice from behind them, causing the group to spin about and face the nymph who stood against them once more, "Indeed I am surprised. Clow Reed, why have you returned?"

Eriol smiled gently at the nymph before him, noting that it was actually rather diminutive compared to his six-foot-even self. Its voice was even kind of cute, now that it wasn't screeching at the top of its lungs. It sounded a lot like some of the few Clow Cards that held the ability to speak languages. If he had compared it to a human, this nymph wouldn't have been much older than a twelve year old girl, though he knew very well that its true age was probably a bit closer to a few millennia.

Yet one thing stood out, which was its continued insistence on its misconceptions. Eriol couldn't help but wonder at why everyone had such a hard time accepting his identity, and once again made to correct this mistake, "Clow Reed has not returned. As I have said, he is dead. I am merely the one who possesses his power and memory. My name is Eriol Hiiragizawa, and you are now freed, my dear wood nymph."

The nymph gazed at him, eyes wide in both wonder and skepticism that this human, he who held a full resemblance to Clow Reed in both power and appearance, was not Clow Reed. As the greatest sorcerer that the human species had ever known, surely the mighty Clow Reed could transcend even death? And yet, this man standing before it denied his very own identity, instead choosing to forge one for his current life. The nymph found it quite difficult to understand the motives of this sorcerer, or his supposed predecessor, though the human race in general was often quite hard to understand.

"Death is a part of nature, as much as is the giving of life," he added, as though he were reading its mind, "For one to live, one cannot escape the inevitable. However, there is always an alternative."

The nymph, whom considered itself the prime wielder of the knowledge of life from its link to nature, stood amazed that it had not realized as much any sooner, though it blamed as much on the maddening psychosis that had, until recently, tightly gripped its mind. Then again, the power of the soul – the powerful essence granted to humans by the Mother Earth herself – was as much a mystery as were the humans that utilized it. Only the Mother Earth could know of what such a power was potentially capable of.

"So, you sought resurrection, so that you might transcend death without escaping it?"

Eriol shook his head, "That is only half correct. I did not seek any way out of death, nor would I. Nor did Clow Reed, for that matter. He wished only for life to continue on as it always has, and gave his up for just that end. He has rather given me the means to see his will enacted, and nothing more." The nymph nodded in understanding. The ways of nature were indeed far different from those ways that nature covered.

The nymph's barkskin face looked up to the taller sorcerer pleadingly, "So that his wish be given a chance to grow, I ask of you Cl- no... Eriol, was it? You will seal me away once more. Already the one who controlled us has tried to reclaim my sister, wishing to reclaim her now that she has been freed. It will not be long before he comes to seek me next, now that I have also been freed by the pains inflicted upon me. They interfered with his maddening whispers, but he will not be long in coming to reclaim his toys. By sealing me away again, your task of destroying me will then be made easier, and then I will be freed of his binding chains. I ask of you to perform this ritual for the others, as well."

"Forgive me," the sorcerer replied, "but I will not stain my hands in blood, human or otherwise. However, do not forget that there is always an alternative. I sense that she who freed your sister has also discovered it."

The nymph whispered to itself in disbelief, "An altern... but how...?" It was unable to believe that it could possibly be freed of the bonds that as yet held it in darkness, at least without having to sacrifice its very life essence, for what else other than death itself could break such an imposing power? Yet in the end, either fate was far more acceptable to the choices that remained to it otherwise. In respect to the chance that Eriol offered to it, the nymph knelt down before the young sorcerer, "Whatever is possible, to free us all from his grasp. That we may yet survive this nightmare is a blessing, indeed. I place us all in your hands."

He nodded silently to himself, then eyed his companions for their thoughts. With no objections, or even any understanding on their part, he willed his staff to come flying back into his hand before turning to face the wood nymph once more. Placing the staff's symbol of the blazing sun above the nymph's head, he recited the words that his good friends over at the Penguin Park had just recently discovered for them, "Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Wood, be disjoined!"

All of time and space began to warp and twist into a singular, swirling mass, an almost sickening display of visual effects as an impossible view of the world wound its way around and around the nymph's body. A rush of wind ensued as space folded in upon itself, pulling in both the nymph and its immediate surroundings until a loud boom sounded out through the darkened forest as that single point in space imploded forcibly. When the atmosphere finally cleared away, what remained to them was a visible green aura of energy hovering above a dark green crystalline orb. The remains of the wood nymph.

Poking a hole into the earth with the butt of his staff, and then focusing the aura before him into a singular point, Eriol took all of that energy and literally planted it into the ground beneath them. As he covered the hole back up, a small tree sapling practically grew into place right before their eyes. This new tree would serve as the focal point for the dispersion of the wood spirit's aura, and they all watched as the spirit's energies began to course not only through the new sapling, but also through all of the nearby trees as well.

The silent padding of a lion's footsteps suddenly brought to mind another, rather disturbing situation, causing Eriol to wheel about on his former guardian. His eyes were wide with an uncommon blaze, "_Why are you not with your master!?_"

Kerberos halted in mid-stride, all four of the guardians completely taken off guard that Eriol would react with such a harsh tone. Even the young sorcerer himself seemed taken aback by his own actions, and visibly made an effort to calm himself, though his piercing gaze never eased off. His eyes bounced back and forth between Kerberos and Yue periodically, still wanting for answers.

When neither of the two responded, Eriol continued on, albeit in a more controlled tone, "What you have just witnessed here tonight is only the _start_ of a long and dark road ahead of us. Why did you come here, instead of protecting Sakura in her own battle? Surely you realized the strength of the enemy just by their presence alone?"

Kerberos continued to hesitate, ashamed to admit that he was now unsure of where his allegiances lie. Yue, sensing his companion's doubt, answered for the both of them, "The mistress is stronger than when you and we last met, and has since acquired allies with equal power. From them we sensed only panic, though their resolve and strength did not waver. But from you we sensed a draining of life, and that there was a true struggle. We chose to assist the weaker of the two groups, and I am certain that the mistress would agree with me."

Eriol closed his eyes, unable to help but grin at this turn of events. Here he was supposed to represent the power of the greatest sorcerer ever known to have walked the earth, and yet he was the one that had needed help in the end. As for these "allies" that Yue had mentioned, he could again only hope that the moon guardian was referring to the person that he was supposed to be searching for. It would save them all a massive amount of time and effort if everyone that was to be involved in their fight was already gathered.

He let out a tense breath that he didn't even realize he was holding, "Leave it to prophecy to mess up everything." This muttering raised a few hairs on Yue's neck, leaving the silver guardian wondering on why Eriol would rely on the fickleness of prophecy when he could utilize his far more accurate skills of fortune telling. He voiced as much, which in turn lead Eriol to recall his entire reason for having returned to Japan in the first place. With one last look in the direction of the skies above the King Penguin Park (he noted that the strength of the darkness in that direction had disappeared altogether, which eased his mood considerably in that they had achieved victory alongside him this night), he started a full, if rushed, explanation of his purpose for having returned.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	18. The Dream, Revised II

_3-3: The Dream, Revised II_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream. The same dream that she had had before, made of eternal darkness, of new books and of new magic, and of an ever-present sense of fear. This time, however, she felt courage in face of that fear, and stepped forth defiantly against it. She now knew of what to expect, and she was sure to be ready for it.

Once again, the three books materialized before her. Her own was centered between the white one on the right, the one that she now knew belonged to her newest friend, and the one on the left that as yet remained shrouded within a veil of black mystery. Somehow sensing what it was that she had to do, she placed herself before the final, unknown book and wafted her hands through the air both around and within its illusionary form, dispersing the mist that had gathered all around it. Then, with the slightest touch of her unwillingly summoned Star Wand, the final book flared into existence. Once again, she was blinded by the process.

The light soon cleared away, and with her returning vision she gazed upon the third book's completed form. It was similar in design to the others, except that this one was of a dark blue leather binding. Upon the front cover, with white-gold engravings and a silver, unmarked nameplate, was set a lapis lazuli-bejeweled crescent moon, with a pattern of wire-frame stars scattered all around it. However, when she circled around to the backside of the book, that was when the real shocker came. The magic circle pattern on the back cover was of the original sun-and-moon design that had been used by herself, Eriol, and Clow Reed.

She stepped back in surprise as the book spun about on her in a single blink of her eyes, and then slowly re-approached it as it unlatched itself just like the white one previously had. She opened the book under a thick sense of caution, even though she already knew what to expect. Of course, lying within the book were the typical fake pages, carved out in the middle in order to hold something. And within that crevasse sat only more darkness, with the same unknown presence as before held within.

Another blink of her eye and the book was shut, its leather arm locked tight once more. An image then began to form in front of her, almost as though it were a part of the book, and yet clearly it was something completely separate. What appeared before her was a familiar symbol of a golden blazing sun merged together with an also-golden crescent moon. That had been Clow Reed's representative symbol, from what little she knew of him. She believed that it also represented something else, though as to what she couldn't be exactly sure. She turned away to think on the matter, a hand to her chin.

While she was lost within her thoughts, the dark-blue book began to fade away from existence, reforming alongside its brethren into a source of light to ready themselves for their inevitable flight. Noticing the disappearing act taking place out of the corner of one eye, she grabbed out at them in the hopes of making them stay, even though she knew it was futile. The books soon departed from her, shooting up and into the darkness until they became little more than the faint speckles of stars. All of it had gone as she had expected it would. She was then well aware, at this point, that the dream would next be restarting itself on her.

She watched on as the little white bird soon flew into her view, settling down on the pitch-black ground only a couple of paces away from her. She reacted quickly, knowing that there was very little time remaining, and in a few quick hops she was stationed protectively in front of that bird. She held her wand up and pitted herself against the oncoming threat that was sure to follow. This time, she was ready for it.

The dark orbs appeared before her again as expected, and this time were already consumed within their circular dance. The dark vortex soon after formed within the perimeter they were making. She pulled back defensively and waited for a moment to strike, watching for the time when the orbs and the darkness would prepare to attack, to draw anything and everything into its nothingness. She could feel the air around her beginning to stir, and so knew that that time was almost near.

A flash of white darted in across her left side, causing her to spin around as the bird flew up and over her position, rushing away from the gathering winds. She stepped over and into the path of the wind, protecting the retreat of the bird, yet was stunned to find that the bird was now flying backwards towards the black hole that was gaping wide to engulf it. It was being pulled back in under the strength of the dark winds, even as it attempted to fly away into the voided skies beyond. And even though she knew she had the power to stop it from happening again, that she had honestly been ready for this moment, she also got the distinct feeling that there was nothing she could do about it.

The bird suddenly lost its ability of flight, uncontrollably shooting through that vortex and vanishing out of sight. She knew that she was next. Standing valiantly, she tried her best to hold her ground against the increasing pull of the vortex's power, but in the end it wasn't enough. Slowly she began to slide in towards it, only managing to stay away due to her preparedness. In the end, however, it didn't seem like it would do any good. As she neared the event horizon, she raised her wand up protectively in front of herself and braced against the inevitable.

Then she jumped back several paces, attempting to recover from the recoil of her efforts as the incessant pull of the dark orbs suddenly ceased. She reoriented her gaze to find that the winds had been interrupted by two white lights that, while visibly unrecognizable, she instinctively knew were representations of the two books from before. She then continued to watch, more in amazement than anything, as a third light flew out of herself. She instinctively recognized it as her own book, and realized that the three lights before her had combined their strengths to block the power of the swirling vortex. Grateful for the interruption, she wasted no further time and darted off in the direction that would take her far away from the dark orbs and their magicks. Having lost this battle, she now desperately sought an escape from this nightmare.

Behind her, as the dream began to fade from existence, sinister bouts of laughter followed along in her wake. Deep and threatening, amused and overjoyed, they relished in the chase of hunter versus prey. She now ran with all of her strength, her courage forgotten before the fear that this place was constantly trying to instill upon her. Depraved and unseen spirits swirled around and about her, screaming hellish chants and furious curses at her, forcing her to shut her eyes and cover away her ears even as she continued on in her pursuit of an escape. This did little to block out the sounds of chaos that were enveloping her.

The void whitewashed all around her as she reached the boundaries of the dream, breaking through and away from that insane world and into one that would be of her own making. Yet even as she did so, that familiar voice from before washed through from the world she had left behind, coursing into her own in order to envelop her senses, her mind, and even her very surroundings.

"_When the Seal on them is broken, a catastrophe will befall this world._"

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	19. Tempting the Mystery

_3-4: Tempting the Mystery_

After over ten years of having to deal with the routine of a school morning, Mr. Kinomoto glanced up at the clock in mild anticipation – thirty-two minutes past seven. Another eight seconds was his estimate. After seven ticks of the hand, the familiar ruckus erupted from above as doors flew open, feet shot down stairs, and his ever-energetic daughter popped through the opening into the kitchen, sitting down hastily to the breakfast already set out for her.

He had been one second off. Close enough.

Greetings were exchanged between mouthfuls of food, though to be honest, he hadn't really understood what she had actually said through her rush to wolf down her morning meal. Placing his own plate down beside the newspaper on the table, he readied the pitcher of juice for her, just in case. But Sakura somehow managed to get by with only one glass to wash down the food with, and before he could offer her more to drink she was already up and into the hallway, rushing about to collect her shoes and roller blades.

"Don't forget your lunch!" he toned lightly, holding up a cloth-wrapped lunch box out towards the kitchen door, which Sakura rushed back in moments later to grab. A few more seconds of the banging and clapping about ensued as she threw on her rollers, hollered a cheerful farewell for the day, and the door was finally slammed shut as she rushed off for school.

With the peace and quiet of an early morning restored, he unfolded the newspaper and immediately made for the weather forecast, noting that the temperatures for the rest of the week were going to be above seasonal. A fair and welcome difference to the somewhat bitter winds that they had experienced the night before. It would make for a good weekend. He then turned the pages back to check the headlines, and picked up on an interesting side article about an unexplainable fire near the local shrine that somehow put itself out.

A quiet fluttering of wings followed behind the sounds of him turning another page, with a half-asleep Kero flying into the kitchen while shaking off his morning weariness. The diminutive, orange figure looked up at the man he had landed beside, and inquired sleepily, "What's with all the banging and commotion so early in the morning?"

"It would seem that Sakura had overslept again, and was in a rush to head off for... what is it?" he asked, trailing off of his own explanation to request one from the now bug-eyed Kero, who was oddly ignoring the food that was arranged behind him.

"Damn it, I missed her. I'd promised to tell her, too," he muttered, failing to heed the questioning look from his mistress's father. It took another round of questioning to regain the guardian's attention, and surprisingly it was enough to pull Kero away from his plans for breakfast. Instead, he sat himself down in front of Fujitaka and, after a moment of thought, went into a full explanation of the previous night's events. He started, first and foremost, with the part about Sakura once again being the target of dangerous magics.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

"Sure, I should be able to go. The teachers aren't giving us that much homework for the weekend, right?"

Tomoyo's face lit up to her best friend's positive reply. Now all that was left was to invite Rika and Naoko for the weekend trip, and she was already aware that their workloads were equally as light as hers and Sakura's. A trip to the newly acquired beach front that her mother had bought off of some local land owners would allow them all the chance to catch up on times and friends both new and old.

The fact that they would get to spend an entire weekend together with their old group was not lost on Sakura, but it was plain as day that she was also just extremely excited about taking a trip to the ocean. She had been delightfully beaming non-stop ever since Tomoyo had posed the invitation to her just before they had entered their homeroom class.

Then Sakura realized something very important, something that had her mood dropping for each second that it had to sink in, "Oh, wait, but I can't. I just remembered that I have chores to do this weekend. I promised my dad that I would have them done early, too, because he's expecting guests from the university."

"No need to worry about that," the raven-haired girl replied, shifting in her desk chair slightly, "I've already made arrangements to have your duties taken care of. Mother said that she could spare a couple of maids for one weekend."

"Wh-wha... seriously? Really, Tomoyo, you didn't have to go to _that_ much trouble."

Whether Tomoyo had heard Sakura or not, that ecstatic grin on her face suggested that she was not about to let Sakura back out of the invitation. Especially more so, considering that the invitation had already been accepted. A gleam of victory sparkled in Tomoyo's eyes as she took the final shot, "Besides, you look best with a smile on, and we would not be able to see that smile very well if you were at home doing chores while everyone else was having fun at the beach."

If there was one thing that Sakura had learned over the years, it was that Tomoyo never let a chance go once it had presented itself. The costumes she was always wearing for her dear friend were proof enough of that. Sakura could feel her cheeks heating up as her embarrassment from all the attention started to build. She quickly turned away to try and hide it, though it only made Tomoyo giggle happily at the cute expression that she was exhibiting as a result.

Shuffles of chairs and feet built up through the room, bringing the attention of the two girls to the front of the room just as Ms. Noriko walked into view. Closing the sliding door behind her as she moved towards the podium, all was quieted by the time she had reached her place, with all eyes on her as she turned to greet the class. The room sat in continued silence afterwards as her eyes went between the students before her and the thin black folder lying open beneath her on the podium. Before long she closed the folder, and then addressed the class.

"Good. Everyone is here, so that makes things easier. To start the morning, I would like to bring in two more students to our class – students that _should_ have joined us at the beginning of the trimester. However, due to some recent changes being implemented by the public school board, their entrance into Seijou High was unfortunately delayed. Everyone, I want you all to welcome them kindly, and treat them as though they had been with us from day one. The two of you can come in now, please."

The classroom's front door slid open again quietly as Sakura turned to ask Tomoyo, "Late arrivals? I wonder who they are?"

Tomoyo could only shrug and shake her head. She had not noticed any new faces wandering about the school grounds that morning. The two of them then turned their attention back to the front of the room to watch Ms. Noriko jot down the new names on the whiteboard, with their eyes flying wide practically instantaneously when they did. The low mumbling of the other students as they conversed amongst themselves about the two new arrivals was easily drowned out by the surprise that had taken the two girls by storm.

Ms. Noriko turned back from writing down the names of the two new students, and continued, "They are both overseas transfer students, and our first one comes from Hong Kong. His name is Syaoran Li. Our other newcomer is from distant Europe: Eriol Hiiragizawa. They tell me that they were both students at the nearby elementary school at one point, so perhaps some of you might know them?"

Syaoran remained as his usual, quiet self, allowing Ms. Noriko's words to be enough for his introduction. However, as if to have him outdone, Eriol bowed slightly in greeting to put to work his typical renaissance charm and grace, "I am Eriol Hiiragizawa. It is a pleasure to meet with all of you." Syaoran felt irritation creeping into the back of his mind for old time's sake, though he fought hard so as not to show it.

"Now then, for your seating..." the teacher muttered, scanning the classroom for viable positions to place the two. For those familiar with him, one would have noticed the mischievous grin building onto Eriol's face at Ms. Noriko's utterance, except that his new classmates were so busy discussing the newcomers that his expression went completely unnoticed. Even Sakura and Tomoyo were too busy at being surprised to notice it. Sakura, in particular, was so far gone that she completely forgot to feel wholly overjoyed that two more familiarities – one a long-time friend, the other her life's soulmate – were standing in the exact same room as her.

Syaoran, for starters, had already mentioned to her last night that he would be applying for a local high school once he had settled back into Tomoeda, so it was not quite as big a surprise to see him in a Seijou High uniform. But the last time she had checked, Eriol had been living happily in England, and, despite his physical age, had successfully enrolled into the University of London. So what was he doing in a Japanese _high school_? For that matter, what were the _both_ of them doing in this same classroom?

Eriol's mischievous grin widened slightly, when Ms. Noriko took to speaking again, "Ah, the two desks free at the far end of the room should suffice. Make yourselves comfortable, and then I will begin with today's homeroom session."

Sakura glanced back as well as she could without seeming obvious, recalling that the two desks behind her were still empty. The same two spots that had been reserved for Syaoran and Eriol back in Tomoeda Elementary. If anyone that knew about it thought of the coincidence as more than just that, they didn't show it. Her attention turned back to Eriol as he passed by her, flashing one of his more cheerful grins in greeting to the two girls. As Syaoran passed, he slowed considerably in his pace, locking eyes with Sakura for a more meaningful exchange of glances.

Ms. Noriko took quick notice to the all the stares going on between the four of them, "Well, it seems that we do have some familiar faces for you two, hmm? Very well, I entrust their care to you two, Ms. Kinomoto and Ms. Daidouji. A small summary of what they have missed within the last few days should suffice. Now then, for our homeroom session today, I would like to discuss the remaining students that have yet to decide on any extra-curricular activities. You have until the end of this coming Monday to register to your specific club, and I want to make sure that everyone is where they want to be. If you have yet to register for anything, raise your hand please."

Fortunately for her, Sakura had already joined up for such after-school activities, for she was so far gone within her own little world of bliss that she had never really heard Ms. Noriko in the first place. The sheer exuberance that she was giving off was infectious, to say the least, and had Tomoyo smiling uncontrollably in turn. Even Syaoran, who couldn't actually see Sakura's expression from his reacquired position behind her, could still feel the happiness practically vibrating out from her. It was as though emotion had become a tangible substance. He found himself being absorbed into the small circle of contentment that the four of them had recreated, habitual irritation at Eriol or not. They all did, for that matter.

Eriol, on the other hand, was rather relieved that everyone had suddenly come into high spirits. Such elated feelings would need to be as high as humanly possible to avoid bottoming out during all the explaining he would have to perform later. He had much that required discussing, and he was sure that the entire lot of them would have more than one question for him, never mind that he had foreseen Kerberos failing in informing anyone of consequence this morning.

He had been hoping to enjoy an afternoon walk with them all, anyway.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	20. Luncheon and Further Mystery

_3-5: Luncheon and Further Mystery_

The shaded tree along the side of the high school's main building, near the fence that cordoned off the soccer field, made for the perfect picnic spot for an afternoon lunch. She knew this by personal experience, from the few times that she had lunched here with Yukito and her brother, and so Sakura took quick advantage of it. From here, she and Tomoyo had a clear view of both the school's main gate and the entirety of the soccer field, and yet they were stationed far enough away from the bulk of the crowded courtyard that they would be left relatively undisturbed.

The entire day for them had felt like one big memory recall. Even now it still did, with Sakura's thoughts wandering back to their earlier days of everyone sitting behind the elementary school, oblivious to the world around them as they talked and laughed over everything meaningful all the way to the meaningless. And with Syaoran and Eriol having returned, the present day had only become that much more confused with their past years. The only thing keeping the two girls from thinking that they were four or five years younger was the change of scenery around them, and the fact that they were a good two feet taller.

For every point of interest that once again seemed familiar, there were twice again as many points that were brand new to them. But neither of the two girls minded it one bit, for it was all the points that were familiar to them that were the most important.

Tomoyo popped open the lid of the small box she had brought with her, and poked at a clump of rice with the small pair of chopsticks that had been locked within. After clearing her first mouthful, she opened up a conversation, "It's amazing how similar everything is starting to look, compared to a few years ago. Now all we need is Mr. Terada to come in as a substitute teacher for the rest of the year!"

Sakura nodded, setting down the half-piece of fried fish that she had just bit into, "I was really surprised, seeing not only Syaoran, but Eriol too. And in the same class as us! Syaoran had told me once, in a letter, that he had wanted to come back to Japan for the longest time and take up his high school studies here. He mentioned it again last night, and then confirmed that today when we were catching up between classes. But I wonder why Eriol came back? I thought he had wanted to stay in Europe until he was done with his schooling?"

Tomoyo put a bit of thought into it, but in the end came up with a rather simplistic answer, "Well, he's the reincarnation of Clow Reed, right? The Eriol we know might be of British descent, but maybe his memories from Clow Reed are pulling him back here? Maybe he feels more comfortable in a Japanese setting?"

Sakura hummed to herself inquisitively, for it was probably as good an explanation as any for his reasons to return. She could always just ask him later on, anyway. Then a thought of wishful thinking overtook her, forcing a small chuckle to escape her lips, "You know, it would be really weird if all of our friends suddenly started attending Seijou High. Chiharu, Naoko, everyone... It would be just like old times, almost! Hey, maybe even Reios would... start... attending...?"

A wave of intrigue – followed by a spike of amazement – trailed her question short, interrupted as it was by the soft and energetic trill of a flute as the high-strung notes carried all throughout the courtyard. As the majority of the other nearby students did, both Sakura and Tomoyo looked over towards the source of the sound, the former of the two finding herself staring in disbelief at the familiar youth that was strolling past the school's war monument, the one that was wearing a black jacket and had something long and reddish-brown strapped to his back. He was fingering away on his flute as he went, completely oblivious to the stares that his out-of-place musicianship was receiving.

The curiosity of the students quickly waned as they went back to their original tasks and conversations, ignoring the strange foreigner that had wandered into their school campus. This saved the two girls some certain amount of embarrassment when Reios suddenly stopped playing, having spotted them lunching beneath the tree. He waved to them cheerfully, his hand and arm raised well above the crowd even as he disappeared beyond the school's front doors, though not before bidding them farewell with an informal salute.

"It can't be, that he..." Sakura uttered as she waved back to him, trailing off as she started to wonder at the accuracy of her previous words. She knew that she had the power to see the future, though such predictions usually limited themselves to her dreams or various fortune-telling methods with her cards. And all of this was regardless of Kero believing that she could now probably just call upon such abilities on a whim, much like Clow Reed had originally done. But never before had her foreseeing abilities emerged through simple conversation, even if such words had only been a small flight of fancy.

Tomoyo couldn't fully suppress the amusement that was building up, releasing a small giggle before revealing what she knew, "No, he isn't. Actually, he is here at my request, as well as Mr. Akita's – that is, the music director's – allowance. Mr. Akita was telling us about how he wanted to invite a professional musician in to perform for us, since the one that he normally invites was away on some extended tour with his personal band. And, with Reios being a member of an orchestral group, I thought it fitting that he should be suggested. Mr. Akita is a strong supporter for student-public interrelations, it would seem, because he immediately agreed to my proposal."

Of course, there was also the issue of a certain pair of students that she had asked Reios to look into while he was here, so that it would not require any future involvement on hers or Sakura's part (aside from some unnerved glances sent in her direction when they had thought she hadn't been looking, things had actually and thankfully been left well enough alone), but Tomoyo left that little bit of her request purposefully unmentioned.

"Oh, wow, really? Let me know when he's going to perform for the choir. I want to listen too!"

Tomoyo nodded cheerfully at the request, happy that she now had a chance to invite Sakura to a choir session. There was a even small chance that she would be able to perform something herself at that time, too, which made Tomoyo all the more excited about it.

"Who were you waving to, just now?" asked Syaoran's voice as he walked up from behind the seated pair, with Eriol in tow behind him. They, too, had heard the trill of the flute, and Syaoran was pretty certain that the player had been the target of Sakura's attention.

Sakura's heart flew with Syaoran's presence near her, a gentle smile growing on her face as she turned to look up at him, "Oh, Reios walked into the school just now. He noticed us all the way over here, somehow. Tomoyo was just saying that she had asked him over to perform for the choir today."

Syaoran frowned for a moment in thought, recalling the events of the previous night, "Reios... you mean the one that was with you last night?"

Sakura confirmed his query with a silent nod, her mouth having been filled with the last piece of her fried fish. She leaned in towards him slightly as Syaoran sat down beside her, not only relishing in his physical presence, but also drinking in what amount of magic she could sense from him. One could say that the feel of being with him had a near-to-guaranteed chance of placing her on cloud nine for the rest of the day. Once again, Tomoyo found the mood most infectious, and found her own heart starting to grow light in tandem to her friend's. Once again, Eriol found himself glad that their moods were in such high spirits.

"So, he is the one. Very good, that saves us the effort of having to go find him," Eriol muttered, though more to himself than to the others, "And that he could spot you through this thickened crowd... at least this would suggest that he has already gained control over a small portion of his magic."

With the topic centered on Reios, and with her favorite sorcerer now within range of her questions, Sakura posed to him, "Eriol, do you know why Reios has a magic key, like me? Or why an... an elf...? Why something attacked us last night?"

Eriol's eyebrows dropped down slightly at the two questions, his mind working to process the information. As he did so, his face became a hardened mask of seriousness that, coming from his normally mischievous personality, one would have thought impossible, "So, he has already transformed his key? Well, at any rate, I am well aware of the situation to which you inquire, and in fact the answer to your questions is the very reason why I have returned. I'm sure that such answers also play a major role in Syaoran's presence, yes?"

Surprised that he had been referenced, Syaoran could only nod slowly at the quasi-young sorcerer. He found himself suddenly wishing that he had taken more time out of the previous night to explain to Sakura of his truer motives about having returned. He had, of course, explained all about his secondary motive of having returned to Tomoeda just for her, with the intention of making a home here now that he was no longer required to live under his mother's authority, but that was all he had gotten out before Tomoyo's bodyguard had come charging in to check up on them.

"Well, as much as I would prefer to discuss with you what has begun to transpire, I am afraid that such talks will have to wait for a more privatized locale." Before anyone could get anything else out of him, Eriol's eyes and mouth had returned to their ever-optimistic set, his cheery eyes turning to greet yet another person to the gathering.

Rika, who had thought she had spotted Sakura and Tomoyo nearby, walked up to the group with the distinct feeling that she also knew the two males that had joined in with them. Just inside of speaking range, their appearances finally rang a few bells. She closed the gap quickly, questions already flying in both her mind and from her mouth as to how Syaoran _and_ Eriol had suddenly found themselves back in Tomoeda, to say nothing of them both wearing the blue-colored Seijou High blazer uniforms.

Between the flurries of all the questions that were being asked, some of which he found himself having to answer, Syaoran mulled over the curiosities that constantly surrounded those people associated with Clow Reed. That Eriol had returned was proof well enough that something was going on, something far bigger than of what even he was aware of. That Eriol had specifically indicated Syaoran's indirect involvement with it all, to which Eriol had been correct, only worried him all the more.

Old habits die hard, or so the saying went. For the rest of the afternoon, Syaoran constantly found himself glaring at Eriol, whenever the focus of attention was shifted onto the Englishman. However, unlike in times of old, where Syaoran would harbor a near-uncontrollable rage of jealousy towards him (it was easy to admit how he had felt back then, now that he had accepted his feelings), he now glared at the sorcerer only with eyes of suspicion and apprehension.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	21. Potential Threat

_3-6: Potential Threat_

It was an argument that Reios knew he would never win. The glaring afternoon sun shining right into his eyes as they left the school's front entrance behind wasn't helping with his thinking process, either.

"Your performance with Mr. Akita was utterly amazing!" Sakura exclaimed, "You're a really good flutist!"

Reios was still trying to be modest about the whole thing, hence the whole "argument" concept. Once again he attempted to shrug it off, "It wasn't anything overly special. That wasn't even a difficult composition, to begin with. You can't judge someone's skill by such low-grade works like that."

To his surprise, Tomoyo was the one to counter him this time, "No, she is right. That piece you performed with the teacher was really moving. It was a wonderful display of emotion and technique, low-grade or not. I am sure that the entire class enjoyed it, too."

He then attempted to hide the fact that he now felt authentically proud of himself by adjusting the black nylon flute bag that was shoulder-strapped alongside the ever-present wooden staff on his back. While fiddling around with it, he added onto the conversation, "Well, it's fortunate then, that Mr. Akita knew how to perform the duet piece. It really surprised me when he suddenly started playing as an accompaniment on the piano, too, much to the point that I almost _stopped_ playing. Though I guess he was somehow impressed with me, because he invited me back as a guest performer for the school choir's first recital. Sometime at month's end, I think he said."

The faces of the two girls lit up, with another chance to listen to him having presented itself. Reios noted their enthusiasm, but continued, "I didn't want to intrude on a position that I thought should have been given to a student, but then I was told that I would be performing in place of another guest musician who had always taken up the role in previous years. I guess he's on some kind of extended tour with a jazz band, this time around, or something.

"At any rate, Mr. Akita said that the plan so far was for both the song we had displayed for the class, as well as one other with a solo vocalist, to be a part of the 'guest performance'. I guess he liked our piano-and-flute duet that much. And the best part of it all, is that there's a very good chance that Tomoyo here will be that vocalist. Apparently he had heard high praises from one Ms. Tsujitani, and was intent on hearing it for himself. And once I heard about that little detail, there was just no way I could refuse."

Sakura's face brightened all the more, "So, then the both of you will be performing together? It sounds like fun!"

Tomoyo nodded with an equivalent enthusiasm to Sakura's, though inwardly she was quite surprised. Mr. Akita wasn't supposed to announce the soloist for their month-end recital until the Friday of next week, by which point he would have had a chance to fully evaluate all the participating students. That her teacher had confided that she would likely be the one to perform it gave her high hopes of being able to sing before her friends again, and that she would likely be the one to sing alongside the accompaniment of Reios's flute artistry made it all that much more exciting.

The three of them passed the school gates and turned the corner, heading up the street and towards the park for their everyday walk home. Her curiosity finally got the best of her, however, causing Tomoyo to turn and ask, "What song did Mr. Akita say we would be performing, or did he tell you?"

Unfortunately, Reios merely shrugged off the question, "Can't say that I know, except that it would be an easy piece to learn. At least for me. He said that it was a beautiful piece in its own right, however."

Tomoyo quietly turned herself back ahead, slightly dismayed that she couldn't begin practicing right away. It was at that moment that she caught sight of two student figures waiting up ahead along their path, one of which was leaning against the cement wall of the school perimeter. She grew immediately worried as to who they might potentially be, considering what she had asked Reios to do for her earlier in the day (and he _had_ done it. He had even went so far as to give her a signed self-restraining order agreement from the two suspects), but Sakura recognized their true identities immediately, even over such a long distance.

So she called out to them, "Ah, Eriol, Syaoran!" and then turned back to urge her two companions onwards, "Come on, let's catch up to them!"

They stepped it up into a jog-like pace at that request, easily and quickly closing the distance between their two groups. Sakura flashed a grin and a wave at the two boys as she came to a stop, but after a moment her grin flipped over into a frown of confusion. They weren't responding to her at all, and if anything, they seemed more concerned about something else behind her. Syaoran had even tensed up to the point that he was about to pull into some kind of martial arts stance. She turned about to see what had so locked their attention, only to have the audible cry of singing metal escaping from its home make her all the more aware of the flashing silver that had crossed into her view.

She stepped back in a half-stumble while pulling Tomoyo away with her, panic starting to overrun her. She was unable to believe that Reios was now standing against them, his katana drawn and its sharpened point aimed directly against Eriol. The fiery look that was in his eyes told her that he was dead serious about intending to attack, too, which had her desperately seeking a reason for the sudden tension in the air, "Hey, wait, what's going on? Reios, what are doing!?"

"Step away from him," Reios hissed, his words deep and venomous, "I've been feeling something in the air all afternoon. A powerful... darkness, for a lack of a better term, and now I find that they've been coming from this 'Eriol'," he indicated Eriol with a small tipping of his katana.

"What the hell are you doing?" Syaoran hissed back viciously, "Put that away before someone notices us!"

Reios ignored the command, and instead kept his gaze deadlocked onto the other foreigner of the group. The stare that he received back in turn was not one that he would have expected, though. Most smart people, if he were to face them with the same situation that he had now placed this Eriol person into, would either be bug-eyed and scared stiff, begging for their lives, or outright running for their lives. Instead, the primary source of those dark emanations merely stood there smiling as though all the world mattered little to him. The utter calmness that the man's aloof grin was also letting off was wholly irritating.

A tense moment passed within the group before Eriol finally chose to answer, "That you could sense my inner power, though I normally do my utmost to hide it... Well, from everything you have studied, I suppose a natural proficiency to your new found power is to be expected. Regardless of that, the reason that you feel dark energies flowing within me is because that is the source of my power. I draw from the Moon and the night's darkness, much like how you draw from the Sun and the day's shining light. I suppose your senses are more keen than most to my power because you are my spiritual opposite."

"Opposite... wh... aah, say... that again?" Reios asked with a stutter, more confused than he was surprised of such an unexpected response, to say nothing of the fact that that this total stranger (at least to him) knew of his study habits. While he had not a single clue of what this Eriol had just said, at the same time he was also getting the distinct feeling that he already knew what it meant anyway. The contradictions that were running through his mind were creeping him out something fierce. It was enough of a shock for him to lower his guard, at least, his sword-point dropping slowly towards the ground as his mind became notably set onto other tasks. Everyone around him released a collective sigh of relief at that.

"If you would walk with us, I shall gladly explain everything. Without any further distractions to impede us, I can now reveal everything I know of our current situation, as well as answer the questions that I am sure are running through your minds. Come. It is a beautiful afternoon for a walk in the park."

And without even waiting for any type of response, Eriol turned and continued on in the direction that Sakura and her part of the entourage had originally been heading. Not wanting to be left behind, both Sakura and Syaoran rushed on ahead to take up spots beside him, with Tomoyo quickly in tow behind Sakura.

Reios, on the other hand, stalled for a moment as he unconsciously studied Eriol's backside. The continued feeling of those dark vibrations from him was quite unnerving. There was a strange foreboding hanging about the man, to be sure, and Reios found it difficult to believe that he was the only one who could sense it. But other than that, and lacking any better terminology for it, Reios couldn't really sense anything overly sinister about him. As a result, his mind wanted to find an excuse for his actions just now, but there just wasn't anything there for it to process. His only recourse was to accept that he had just made a complete and utter fool out of himself. Again.

Before long, though, he decided to choose knowledge over suspicion. After replacing his sword, he jogged off to catch up with the rest of the group.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	22. Explanations

_3-7a: Explanations_

It had been almost six hours since their opening homeroom session that morning, and yet Sakura was _still_ in a half-wondrous state about the old gang practically being all back together again. Only now she was enjoying a leisurely stroll along her favorite park path with that old gang. It would have been enough to forget all of the worries that had brought them together, if not for the fact that these worries were specifically the reason of why they were walking together in the first place. She would not let those worries bother her, though, not quite just yet. That Eriol had come to offer them some peace of mind was a gladly welcomed change to all the mysteries that had begun to spring up all around them, to be sure, but none of it compared to the chance of just being able to relax in the company of the people she cared about, and Sakura fully intended to take advantage of her current situation for as long as she possibly could.

In addition to that, while she was on the topic of avoiding and confronting worries, was that it would be good to be a benefactor of Eriol's powers for once, instead of as target for them as she had been originally. Every single one of them knew that they would need all the help they could get against this new threat, and what better assistance could they hope for other than the reincarnation of the world's most powerful sorcerer? Even better was that she would once again get to work alongside a good friend, both in and out of the classroom. It would take a lot of effort for something to be able to top that.

Before long, however, Eriol's purpose at having returned had them all going into a full discussion of their purposefully forgotten worries.

"So you've come back to Japan specifically to help us against these... spirits?" Sakura asked of Eriol, as they continued ever on down the park's main walkway. He nodded silently in reply to her.

Reios, meanwhile, was finally starting to come to an understanding of what was going on around him, "Then, with you manipulating the magic of darkness, the opposite to my light, everything you've been saying about this 'spiritual opposite' stuff is starting to make a little bit of sense, I guess. So the whole lot of us are meant to go up against whatever it is these demons – or spirits, I suppose – are going to throw at us?"

"But then," Syaoran interjected, "there's still the matter of what Clow Reed has to do with all of this. Is this supposed to be some other kind of test for Sakura, or for you, or Reios? Why would he cause so much trouble – even danger, for that matter – for all of you?"

"It's not quite like that. Clow Reed is only indirectly involved this time," the sorcerer replied to Syaoran's query, before proceeding to answer their general intrigue, "While it is true that we – that is, Sakura, Reios, and myself, specifically – have been 'chosen' by Clow Reed to handle this situation, much like how he chose Sakura to be the new mistress of the Cards, he personally has nothing to do with our present-day threat. However..."

Eriol stalled momentarily as he pulled to the forefront the memories of his past life, leaving the others to walk alongside him in silence until he could continue, "Before Clow Reed's time, the spirits that we now face had still belonged to themselves, and were at peace within their true domains. In fact, there were – and still are – numerous spiritual entities all over the world, each with powers that either draw from the primary elemental planes themselves, or are narrowed down to specific tasks that only certain spirits can perform. Then there are all sorts of spirits in between the two ends of the spectrum, as well, all widely ranging in both power and ability. Most are of an ethereal nature, not having manifested themselves physically for one reason or another. However, there are some – such as the woodland elf that you all encountered – that at one point had chosen to take on a physical form.

"Of all the possible types of spirits available, the ones that we face are of the more common, more powerful terrestrial elements, seven in total. They are the primary elements of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. With them have come three lower-tiered elements: those of Wood, Lightning, and Metal."

Syaoran cut in to the lecture, "So, it _is_ them?"

Eriol nodded to Syaoran again, "Yes, it is – the very elements that you and your clan worship. The Li Clan's uncanny ability for elemental control had been inherent in their bloodline since long before Clow Reed's time. But with the arrival of the dormant power of those terrestrial spirits, whose life forces had been sealed away by Clow Reed into sub-dimensional prisons given physical form, those abilities were greatly augmented. These prisons were passed off as powerful magical artifacts, and were thus handed down through his mother's side of the family. As were most of his more powerful artifacts, I believe.

"Long ago, while Clow Reed was still in the midst of traveling the world, those seven elemental spirits came to him under the guise of nature's command, seeking some form of retribution for unknown reasonings. However, he being who he was, my former self managed to see through their deception and was able to discern that there was a greater force at work. He had seen that there was something sinister that had been lurking in the shadows during their encounter, watching those spirits at play. He eventually learned that it was also controlling them. Not wanting to be the one to take an innocent life, he eventually managed to seal the seven spirits away within their crystalline prisons. His wish was that they remain as such until a time came that a way was learned to release them from whatever was controlling them.

"But such evil influences, it seems, were never actually sourced, despite Clow Reed's reputation as the strongest sorcerer ever. This corrupting power thus continued to manipulate the minds of these spirits long after Clow Reed had passed away. Even within their sealed prisons, they were continually tormented, their wills warped beyond all reasoning. That the seals upon them were isolating them from their personal ties to the natural elements only further weakened their ability to resist. They were completely powerless to defy the advances of madness.

"As well, their prisons were controlled by a magic that was linked directly to Clow Reed's power. With his passing, as well as with the removal of his remaining magic from this world, their seals eventually began to weaken. The last essence of power from Clow himself resided within the unchanged Card of negative energy, which was later transformed into a Sakura Card. When this final card was reincarnated, the spirits were freed, the seals upon their prisons having vanished entirely. Their irrational and insanity-scarred minds were prematurely set loose. When this happened, memories within me were... realized. I was made aware of their existence at that point. Through this, I tracked them from where they had escaped, and was eventually lead back here, to Tomoeda."

Eriol paused for a moment before redirecting the conversation, "Syaoran, I think you know more than I do of what happened at this point in the story."

With the attention of the group having shifted, Syaoran nodded slowly to take the floor. He almost felt ashamed that he would have to reveal his side of the story, "It was about three weeks ago. The elements that have guarded our clan for generations – since and before Clow Reed's time – closed their hearts to us, abruptly and without any determinable cause. In specific were the focusing charms that my four sisters always wore. The four objects that were supposedly housing the primary essences of these spirits, these 'prisons' that had been created by Clow, all grew dark and cold. They had become worth little more than simple rock. Then six days later, they just up and disappeared entirely. Mother soon ordered me to track them down, and their trail ironically lead me here, where I was going to head for anyway, after all of this had been settled.

"Each charm had been specific to the two elements that it housed, each in representation of an aspect of nature, and each pitted against each other in an opposing balance. The first, held by my eldest sister, contained the essences of the Fire spirit and the spirit of Thunder and Lightning. They were believed to be a symbol of courage and strength, steadfast resolve opposing brute force. The second contained the essences of the Earth and Metal spirits, representing growth and durability – the signs of intelligence and wisdom. The third one, given to the youngest of my sisters, contained the spirits of Water and Wood. They were in representation of the cycles of life and death, one constantly drawing upon the other. Each balance required a portion of its opposition in order to continually exist within isolation.

"Then there was the last charm, which was given to my second eldest sister. For some odd reason, it housed only one spirit: that of the Wind, which symbolized change, or sometimes even the flow of life's course. Something that cannot be balanced, perhaps, since time is often considered as eternal. But even more strange was that it was not contained within a simplistic spherical orb like the others were, but instead within a small, sculpted flower. An emerald, I think."

Sakura's head spun fast in Syaoran's direction, emotions of shock and distress mixed in, "An emerald flower? We saw something similar to that at the park last night, just before you arrived! It shattered itself when we found it, releasing that elf that had attacked us. Now that I think on it, though, I remember one of your sisters wearing it from when I visited your home, when I won that trip to Hong Kong."

Eriol hummed to himself sagely, "That would make sense. The wind spirit was considered the weakest of the group that had been sealed away, and thus would be sent to perform the initial reconnaissance against us. It also explains why it was imprisoned on its own, instead of being balanced out with a conflicting spirit to negate the bulk of its power. Magically sealed, it would not have the brute force required to break itself free; unsealed, it had nothing to negate its powers, and could easily shatter a simple crystalline carving. It could escape on its own, and then work to free its cured brethren, though it would seem that not everything went according to that specific plan.

"Regardless, the rest of those darkened spirits are now fully aware of our capabilities, of both our strengths and of our weaknesses. It will be only a matter of time before they begin to challenge us with their full potential."

"Speaking of challenges," Reios asked, "why couldn't these spirits have just attacked us as soon as they had gained release from these prisons? It makes no sense for them to have waited all this time for the three of us to gather together, allowing us to acquire the strength to potentially defeat them."

"Yes, they very well could have come to attack us at any moment in the past, defeating us separately and uncontested. But then," Eriol paused a moment to press his glasses up, "one has to consider that they were far more weakened than was normal for them, due to them being isolated from their personal elements. Not only did they wish to regenerate their strength, but in their warped delusions they still saw themselves as infinitely more powerful than any of us three. At the time, they may not have seen us as a threat, and thus felt that there was no rush, but now they know better. As well, they were also likely able to utilize their prisons as focusing points, much like how Syaoran's four sisters previously had. Once the seals were no longer a part of the equation, this would have allowed them to recuperate their magicks in far less time than would normally have been required for them."

Reios huffed indignantly at that, a smug look plastered onto his face, "Well, in their 'infinite' power, they were unable to match up to our combined prowess. They should have rested themselves for a little more."

Eriol sighed inwardly at the man's overconfidence, though kept his face straight and serious, "Do not think that it was so easy. Unlike the trials that Sakura has faced in the past, this time there is the full risk of failure, even death. In both her case and mine, the only method to a sure victory against these spirits laid in the surprise arrival of assistance that confused and ultimately flanked the spirits into submission. They had expected only to deal with those chosen by Clow, yet instead were forced to confront various additional foes. The next time we are confronted, we may not have that advantage to help us."

"Wait wait... when you say both her case, _and_ yours... are you saying you also fought against one of these spirits? And you defeated it on your own!?" Reios inquired, eyebrows rising up in amazement as he analyzed Eriol's words.

"That is very much what I am saying. Upon my arrival here, I was challenged by a nymph, a spirit of the element of Wood. However, it was not completely under my own power that the spirit was defeated, but by the assistance of Ruby and Spinel, my two creature guardians whom had offered to escort me to here from England – familiars, if you will. Although there was that certain _other_ pair of guardians that had appeared later on," Eriol added at the end, his voice growing tense.

Tomoyo, who was just trying to keep up, held her chin in thought, "That would explain why Kero and Yue failed to arrive at the park last night."

"At any rate," Eriol put in, shifting away from what was still a touchy subject for him, "our primary focus right now should be to locate the remaining spirits, or at the very least be fully prepared for an encounter with them. At no time, Sakura, should the cards you hold be unaccounted for, and we should always be ready to act regardless of the situation. While the minds of the Wind and Wood spirits have been released, the remaining spirits are still caught within a turmoil of discord. Their actions will be difficult to predict. They may also be more difficult to defeat, now that they are aware of our potential. Which reminds me, I should give this to you."

From his pocket, Eriol pulled a fist-sized, dark green gem. It was spherical in shape, its opaque surface glittering slightly in the few streams of sunlight that were filtering down through the leaves covering the sky above them. A moment of hesitation took him before he finally turned to Sakura to hand her the small crystal. She examined it for herself, finding it to be a close twin to the one she currently carried in her backpack. The only difference was that this one was of a darker shade of pine-green, in comparison to her own true-green version. From the both of them, however, she could feel a kind of powerful consciousness. Processes of natural thought that exuded a kind of gentle serenity even as they slept within those magic-formed crystals. She could also sense vividly from those thoughts of their desires for a return to their previous lives – lives that would be unhindered and as one with their natural elements.

She slipped the small crystal in through the main flap of her backpack, dropping it in with its twin and alongside her books and school supplies. The group then fell into a bit of a silence during their walk, at which point they unexpectedly found themselves exiting the forested park walkway and turning up the street towards the bus station that Tomoyo normally departed from. Buildings began to appear in the distance, the shaded world of the park forests being slowly left behind as they continued onwards, with the view ahead of them more favoring the mid-afternoon bustle of the commercial sectors of town.

Before long, the silence was broken by more questions, and this time from the newcomer. Digging out his new key-like pendant from underneath his shirt, Reios took a moment to examine it before asking, "So how about some more explaining about this 'spiritual opposite' stuff? I already know that I'm aligned with the Light, and you with the Dark. But from everything I've been witness to so far, that's just a bit too easy."

Eriol grinned, a slight hint of mischievousness returning to his eyes as he wondered at the man's perception. In reply, he removed his own backpack from his shoulders, swinging it around so as to allow him to search through it. Spotting the object that he required, he pulled out a small, leather book, and re-shouldered his pack. Sakura immediately got the distinct feeling that she already knew what that book was going to be, and the dark blue leather binding only made it all the more obvious.

"What I mean, to be more specific, is this," he finally said, holding up the book that he had acquired for all the others to see. Sakura, while failing to be completely surprised this time around, still managed to feel a twinge of amazement at the accuracy of her own dreams. Everything that she had expected to be there, was there. From Eriol's roman-lettered name and the bejeweled crescent moon with wire-frame stars on the front of the book, to the large symbolic pattern of magic circles and writings upon the back, all of it was as she had foreseen.

"That's the third book from the dream that I've been having," Sakura remarked, leaning in closer to get a better look.

Instead, Eriol just handed it to her, allowing her to examine it thoroughly while he began the new topic's explanation, "This was what I meant when I said that Clow Reed had chosen us as his representatives."

"It also indirectly links to us being spiritual opposites," he indicated Reios with a tip of his hand, "You, who draws from the shining light of the Sun, by extension being affiliated with that very Sun's flames and the warmth of the Earth – entities where the Light will always have a place. Then there is myself, who draws from the _false _light of the Moon, by extension being affiliated with the invisible winds and the darkness of the ocean's depths – entities that the Light cannot see. Our very alignments fate us to be in opposition to one another. Thus, spiritual opposites."

"Okay, so the two of you use completely different magics," Syaoran noted, occasionally switching his stares from between his companions to the dark blue book that Sakura now held, "But how did these new books come into all of this?"

Eriol folded his arms together as he went back into lecture mode, "When the original Book of the Clow, and the Clow Cards held within it, were finally transformed to draw from Sakura's stars, there was hidden within them one final ounce of power from Clow Reed. A latent spell, if you will. It was similar to the other spells that had been inlaid within the book, which themselves allowed certain events to unfold while Sakura was in command of the old Clow Cards. The latent spell in question was designed to awaken and activate should the elemental spirits ever escape from their prisons with their minds still held in chaos. Its purpose was to prepare not only Sakura, the holder of the original-later-reincarnated cards, but also those who would potentially stand alongside her.

"The spell inlaid within the book measured the holder's power – in this case, Sakura – and then compared it to that of Clow Reed's. These spirits, individually, are relatively close in strength to that of Clow, and it was deemed necessary that safeguards be put in place in order to keep the new master of the cards from jumping into a hopeless battle. The spell thus determined that Sakura, while growing ever stronger in her own right, was still not quite close enough to measure up to Clow Reed's level of skill or power. With this, it enacted its second command: seek out powers of similar thought and strength to aid her.

"The first was Reios, whom had appeared to Sakura in a moment of need. Sakura's subconscious mind recognized this trait of heroism," Reios blushed slightly at Eriol's method of description, and turned away in embarrassment, "and by this the spell linked him with a power that in turn was linked with the Light. It then copied the Sakura Book and its contents, fitting the copy to suit Reios's Light-based qualities. Then, once connected to him, the book and its contents appeared before their new master.

"I assume you have discovered your new cards by now?" Eriol asked of Reios, receiving a slow and slightly confused nod in return, "I would imagine that they also attempted to discover you, as well. How much were you able to learn from them? I hope that they didn't keep you up all night," he added.

Reios opened his mouth to answer Eriol's question, but Syaoran didn't seem quite so convinced as they, and interrupted the two, "Wait a second. So what you're saying is that Clow Reed had cast a hidden spell on the Clow Cards so that they would, what? Copy themselves? It supposedly took all of Clow's magical power just to create the original cards! You're saying that a simple spell copied that much magical power, just like that? Why couldn't Clow just make the three books himself, if it was to be that simple? For that matter, what do you mean by _new_ cards?"

"By new cards, I mean that the two new books both contain copied versions of the Sakura Cards," Eriol replied, "One for the Light, and one for the Dark. A set for each to balance out the two types of ruling elements. Go ahead, open my book and have a look for yourselves."

Sakura proceeded to do just that, and found that the inside of the book had been hollowed out much like her own. Within laid the new cards that Eriol had described, bearing the original magic circle design of the Clow Cards on their backs. The only thing that was different, that she could tell from just a quick glance-over, was that the cards were a dark blueish-purple. They were not the dark red color of the original Clow Cards themselves. Syaoran was quite figuratively beside himself, with this truth now having been confirmed.

With the score in his favor, Eriol replaced his serious glaring with a slightly pleased smirk as he continued, "As for actually creating them, it is true that it had taken Clow a great deal of effort to create just the Clow Cards. This truth is made only more evident in the amount of effort it took Sakura to reincarnate them. However, thanks to the overwhelming power of the negative energy card that Clow had created to balance out the fifty-two positive energy cards, there was more than enough surplus magic available for the latent spell to perform its task. That is how Clow was so easily able to copy the power of the Sakura Cards into a pair of new books. His spell utilized that overly excessive energy that had laid dormant within his originally secret, sealed card.

"And yet in actuality, it is not quite as simple as I have put it, since to be able to copy so much power there would have to have been a balance to that power. The way Clow Reed designed the latent spell is thus rather ingenuous. In creating the two copies of the Sakura Cards, the spell in turn also created an extra, blank card for each copy. These 'blank slates' were then filled with natural negative energies provided by the very planet itself, offered up in accordance to a contract established by Clow Reed just after he had sealed away the elemental spirits. Once the two new cards of negative energy were appropriately matched in strength to the two decks of cards that they respectively guarded, the latent spell forced an alignment shift so that these new cards would take on the role of the _elemental_ balance that was required to keep the newly created power of the two books in check.

"In the end, that is still a far more simplistic explanation compared to what actually took place, but I fear that it will have to suffice. A more in-depth explanation would require a few more hours of talking, plus some minor demonstrations, all of which I fear we do not have time for at the moment. Now then, where was I?" Eriol paused for a moment to recall his original place in the lecture, "Ah, right. Now, as I have noted multiple times at this point, there must be a balance to everything. To fulfill this requirement, the latent spell also required a balancing attribute to Reios's Light. Through Sakura's subconscious mind, it sought out the best candidate for that of the darkness. It would seem that through her familiarity with Clow Reed's aura and magical presence, I was chosen. The book I hold appeared to me the night of my arrival here in Tomoeda, after my ordeal with the nymph spirit."

"Okay, that's all well and good," Syaoran put in, eyeing Reios with a slight air of suspicion, "but what about Reios's new key? If he was chosen as one with the power of Light, as you say, shouldn't his key also represent that light? When he used it against that elf last night, I noticed that it was wrapped within an aura of darkness, and that it was drawing from dark energies."

Eriol pulled out his own key in response, "That, too, is a matter of balance. When one acquires a strength previously unknown to oneself, a balancing power must be enacted upon that one, or else one would eventually be consumed by that power. It is not something that an elemental sorcerer like yourself would be too familiar with, I fear. A multifaceted system of magic, like manipulating base terrestrial elements, rarely requires a self-maintained balance due to multiple elements both balancing and negating each other. On the other hand, when dealing with magical alignments that are comparable to the two sides of a coin – such as Light and Dark, or Good and Evil, the most basic of concepts to the term – the requirement for a balance is much more pronounced. When dealing with magic, or even nature, there must be a balance in all things: physical, mental, and spiritual. Balance, in this way, is both sensitive and specific in its needs. Therefore, his new key was designed to draw from the ruling element of Darkness, in order to counteract his powers of Light. Thus, it acts as a balance against his own strength.

"It is the same with myself. As I explained earlier, I wield the power and magic of Darkness, as represented by the power of the Moon. Yet, when I manipulate my power," Eriol took up and displayed his key for emphasis, "I utilize a symbol of light, the Sun Staff. This is much like how Clow used his power, for he and I wield the same magic. In our darkness, to avoid being overwhelmed by it, we utilized instruments of light to keep the balance in check."

As an afterthought, Eriol turned and examined Sakura for a moment before continuing, "While I am at it, I should note that Sakura's power is completely different. Originally, she also drew upon the powers of Darkness to wield the Clow Cards, as that was the type of magic that Clow had left behind for the Cards to feed on. This meant that, at the time, her Sealing Wand had been infused with the power of Light. However, with the advent of her power of the Stars, there also came a change in the balance, for the stars are themselves both light _and_ darkness. They shine on eternally, but remain forever blanketed within the black depths of space. This meant that her staff had required no secondary magic to keep the power of the Stars in balance, and in the end that allowed it to draw from those same Stars as well. This uncommon pairing allows her to control far more magic than most modern-day sorcerers would even consider as safe."

Syaoran nodded, the varied explanations of the descendant powers of Clow Reed putting much of the puzzle into place for him. With everything slowly falling into line, he dared to ask Eriol for a personal opinion, "So now that our powers have come together, and we can now collectively rival even Clow Reed himself, can we really win against beings that equal him in magical strength?"

For a long moment, Eriol hesitated, and that hesitation was more than enough to place some serious concern into Syaoran. That mood swept through the rest of the group like wildfire, quickly taking Sakura and the others along with it. They all could sense that there was something Eriol had as yet to mention. Something that was utterly important. Something that had him worried. And an Eriol that could be worried was a scenario that had only once before been conceived into this world.

The tension in the air thickened considerably as the silence went on, the somber mood wearing them all down until Eriol finally broke from all of the stress. He released a deep and despondent sigh before continuing, "I would assure us all of a victory, if not a very easy one, except that fortune and prediction cannot help us this time. The powers that we must ultimately face strangely do not seem to draw their strength from this world, but from somewhere beyond our own existence. In this regard, it negates the use of fortune-telling, something which can only see into our current world and into our current future. Because of this, a prophetical verse was instated to be our guide, and from it, several revisions of its words have since come into focus."

"Prophecy!?" Reios exclaimed, his interests suddenly piqued far beyond their already heightened state. He didn't like where this was going.

Eriol nodded solemnly, "Yes, and it is a most disturbing one, as are most prophetical descriptions of this nature. From the original, it reads:

_Light in the darkness, the preventers of destruction_

_To release one begins the release of them all_

_You cannot defend her, kneel down and surrender_

_Your end is at hand_


	23. Prophecy

_3-7b: Prophecy_

"Prophecy!?" Reios exclaimed, his interests suddenly piqued far beyond their already heightened state. He didn't like where this was going.

Eriol nodded solemnly, "Yes, and it is a most disturbing one, as are most prophetical descriptions of this nature. From the original, it reads:

_Light in the darkness, the preventers of destruction_

_To release one begins the release of them all_

_You cannot defend her, kneel down and surrender_

_Your end is at hand_

Eriol paused for a brief moment to let the words of his prophecy sink in, "It is my belief that it was intended as a warning against allowing the spirits free reign, whether they are of right mind or not. Or, perhaps it is meant as a guide towards what should be our ultimate goal. One can never be sure, as any interpretation of a prophetical verse is often misleading at some point or another, even if it was completely correct to begin with. Such verses can also contain multiple interpretations within a single reading, all of which can be either correct or misleading, or both all at the same time, and in so doing force a biased opinion of the interpreter. Or, the interpretation can be so misinformed and uneducated that it was never right to begin with. That's the problem with prophetic uncertainty: it can go any which way it wants.

"One of the more obvious interpretations, however, is what really has me worried – the fact that it refers to one or more of us not surviving the outcome, albeit rather ambiguously. However, since it... specifically mentions a gender..."

Eriol stole a quick glance over to Sakura as his words trailed away, which told them everything that what he was trying to infer. Each of them shot nervous looks at her in turn, trying for themselves to gauge her reaction without being noticed. However, as the implications of this prophetical description of her potential future weighed down upon her, Sakura slowly began to withdraw into herself, much to the point that ultimately failed to notice all the apprehensive eyes that were aimed at her. Even Syaoran's arm encircling her shoulders, an embrace given as a way to ease the suffering that he could see working its way into her, did little to take her thoughts from this new revelation.

She had always known that her powers would someday bring about great adversity, possibly even fatal dangers. Such a scenario had occurred once already, even, several years ago during a winter vacation to Hong Kong, back when she was still collecting the unconverted Clow Cards. If not for some last-second realizations, her family, her friends, and indeed she herself would not have survived their encounter with that water sorceress. To think that she would not see danger on such a scale ever again would be foolish, to be sure. Even Syaoran's mother had warned of such a fate. She knew all of this very well, and had kept those warnings tucked away into the furthest recesses of her mind ever since, but... to now be faced with such a situation, after so many years of peace and happiness? It was almost too much for her to bear.

"But then," Reios uttered, thinking hard to try and turn the mood the other way around, "as Eriol pointed out, interpretation is never one hundred percent accurate. Even when interpreted by someone who knows what they're doing, it can be a fickle thing at best. No offense intended Eriol, but I don't believe in the one-way-only scenario. So from what I know, if we can decipher the message being told to us ahead of time, we can avoid the fate that it describes to us. At the very least, we can try to be prepared for it. What we really need to try and find out is who this 'light' is that is being referred to, as well as what it means by releasing everything. If we can figure out those two parts, I have a good feeling we that can beat both it, and the remaining elemental spirits, all in one shot.

"Which is why I am going... to do this," he added, pacing a few steps ahead of the group and pulling his staff-like katana free from the back of his belt. They all stopped to view his display as he turned back to face them, "Just before I had left home to come to Japan, my Iaido instructor came by and made me take an oath on this blade to never stain it with innocent blood. A superfluous ideal in this day and age, perhaps, but it's one that I genuinely intend to honor. But then I took that oath one step further on my own, by giving my sword a name and a purpose. It's name is 'Windsong', for it sings of the human soul in its whistling cries. Its purpose is as the balance against death, to cause the endearment of life to take hold within its opponent with each cut that it is committed to. And now, I put a new oath to this sword: that I will allow none of us to fall in battle against these demonized spirits."

With a forced heroic display, he slid the katana's spine over the web of his hand that held the scabbard, then slipped it back home with a single, fluidic motion. He then shot the group a rather cheesy grin, "After all, we've only just met."

Syaoran, being a martial artist in his own right, stared incredulously at Reios and his acting, "What manner of a ridiculous display was that?"

Reios held that grin for a painfully long time, despite Syaoran's rebuke, and he even went so far as to step into a "superhero's pose", with his fists sitting atop his hips. He himself knew that it was goofy as all hell to be standing like that, but before long it began to have its intended effect. The clown-like embarrassment that he had set onto his face broke through the gloomy setting that had befallen his four walking companions, slowly lightening the tension that had built up. Even Syaoran had to chuckle at how goofy it was, if only to laugh at its continued ridiculousness. Most importantly, though, was that Sakura was unable to help herself and soon enough was following suit. His bit of acting quickly had her bursting out in a fit of giggles, which easily managed to put everyone else all back to smiles.

Nodding in acceptance of their more preferable attitudes, "That's better," Reios turned and stepped back into line as they continued on with their walk.

"Now, the only problem that remains is to decipher the prophecy's meaning, as you say," Eriol muttered, going over everything that he had ever learned for himself, and that which he had gained from Clow Reed's memory. Yet nothing besides years of study and training in his current life would come into his head, none of which was even remotely useful to them in this situation. And of course, his vaunted ability of foresight, inherited in full from Clow Reed, was still proving completely useless to him for reasons that had already been stated. He looked over to Reios for any ideas on the matter, since the man seemed to have some semblance of understanding when it came to their current topic.

Reios noticed the look, but merely shrugged, "I don't really get it, myself. Prophecy can be just as annoying as it is useful, sometimes." The comment forced a small chuckle out of Eriol, as the two came to a small understanding in the matter.

"Wait, now I remember!" Reios exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, half-surprising the group with his sudden outburst, "A song! It was in a song! Mind you, that... doesn't really help here. But I remembered where I heard it from, at least."

Syaoran shot him a glance that maintained its previous look of incredulousness, as well as an added touch of confusion, "A song? What does a song have to do with anything?"

"It doesn't, really. It's just that one of my favorite artists wrote up lyrics for a song that contained words extremely similar to our little prophecy. I don't know, it's just that that song has been stuck in my head ever since the first time I heard it..." Reios finally trailed off, staring into space to scrape at the far corners of his mind for anything in relation to his discovery.

Eriol, however, didn't seem so surprised, "It does make sense, however. For those directly involved in a prophetic verse, the words required will often make their way to those involved by any means possible. For me, it was a simple dream provided by the memories of Clow Reed. For Reios, some musician got 'lucky' and jotted down the verse almost to the exact wording. And while it is not the exact same prophecy, I believe that Sakura was also told of these event as well.

"_WHAT!?_" the brown-haired girl cried out in a panic, suddenly thinking that all of this trouble could have been prevented ahead of time. It only took her a moment, however, to notice that her yelling had drawn out quite a few stares from various people both around them and across the street.

She moderated her voice, "But I don't recall ever hearing those words!"

"It is not the words of my ancient prophecy of which you were told, but rather of something else that should be far more familiar. Something that once held a much greater meaning for you. Even though it wasn't fully meant to be used in a prophetic scenario, somehow my former self saw fit to place it as such. Surely you still remember it? _When the Seal on them is broken, a catastrophe will befall this world._"

Syaoran knew that Clow Reed had to be involved somehow, but Eriol's newest revelation was just old news, "But that's the warning about the impending disaster if the selected Cardcaptor were to fail the Last Judgement. How does it apply to these elemental spirits?"

"It applies because the Clow Reed that appeared in my dream last night said it would apply," Eriol replied, shrugging slightly, "The same, exact dream that Sakura and Reios here likely also had. And while I have nothing else to go on, for the moment, it still means that these words have some kind of meaning to us here. What's more is that the placement of the Seal has been generalized in the wording, meaning that we cannot predict what will be released, or where such a catastrophe might occur. As well, unlike the first prophecy that I brought up, which was recorded even before Clow Reed's time, this one is from Clow himself. That makes it all the more important for us to watch for its coming."

Crossing his arms, Reios tilted his head back to glare up into the mid-afternoon sky, "Well, if the words of this Clow Reed and the words of the past are being brought about at the same time, then there is a high probability that they are directly related. Even if they aren't, and we somehow manage to constantly compare the two prophecies as we watch these events begin to unfold, it still just might offer some amount of predictability that we can match our efforts to."

Eriol raised an eyebrow at Reios's analysis of the situation, "You seem to know much about topics of mysticism."

"You're the one who knew about my 'study habits'," Reios countered.

"The balance to the descendant of the great Clow Reed would require an intellect to match, and not just a powerful source of strength."

The voice without an owner called to them them from around the corner of the intersection that they were nearing, drawing all attention forward. Sakura immediately recognized it as belonging to her Moon Guardian, Yue, and she began to wonder fearfully about what he was doing walking about in public. What surprised her the most, though, was that when a pair of bodies rounded the corner, it was Touya and Yukito whom they had all chanced to meet, instead of the silver-robed angel that she had expected. Which was when she remembered Yue telling her a few months back about how he had fully removed the dividing barrier between his two minds at Touya's request. Yukito and Yue now _shared_ the dual-form body that they inhabited, instead of Yukito merely inhabiting a false identity for the express purpose of keeping Yue's true self a secret, or instead of just a minor telepathic link between their two selves. Each of them now knew and remembered everything of the others activities, even while they were asleep in a subconscious state, as opposed to the one-way street that Yue had commanded previously.

Back in the present day, Touya had not been expecting to see Syaoran, or even Eriol, as he took the corner, something which automatically soured his mood considerably. Syaoran made a note of this and immediately went on the defensive, mere seconds away from pulling into an attack stance. Reios instinctively darted in between the two before something reckless was able to occur. Touya, however, failed to acknowledge this unknown person's presence.

"What's the kid doing here?" he instead asked, his eyes glancing to his little sister in annoyance.

"He has a name, you know!" Sakura shot back, equally annoyed.

Reios held his arms half-way up defensively, as though he were ready to fend off the two that he stood between, "Yes, great, we can all make introductions to each other. But first, can we drop the hostility please? Or do I need to separate you two?"

This comment finally got Touya to notice the foreigner standing in front of him, "And you are?"

Reios shot a pair of suspicious side glances at Touya and Syaoran, "The name's Reios. Now, are you two going to settle down, or...?"

Touya was the first to back down, knowing that he shouldn't be the one to instigate a fight anyway. It was just a kid, after all. Certainly not worth bothering about. Instead, he made a quick round of introductions for himself and Yukito, then turned back to his little sister, "So, Yuki and Yue been explaining to me about what happened last night. Are you all okay?"

Sakura nodded with her typical cheerfulness, "Yeah, we're all fine, thanks to Syaoran and Reios's help. We were just discussing what to make of everything, now that Eriol has had a chance to explain it to us."

Yukito's eyes turned empty and unfocused as Yue's consciousness temporarily came to the forefront, "That you're speaking openly of the previous night's events... this would suggest that your new companion is the third?" The query received a short nod from Eriol.

"Then, what is this prophecy you speak of? You referenced it last night, as well," the guardian's voice asked, sounding genuinely interested in whether they had come up with anything else since Eriol's arrival.

Before the words could even form in Eriol's head, the senses of every magically-inclined person present were bombarded by waves upon waves of corrupted energy. Strong feelings of hatred and loathing came at them from all directions, effectively drowning out any kind of positive mood that had recently managed to develop. Most of them knew what the source was even before they had recovered from the shock of the overwhelming invasion of magic, and the two that didn't could easily tell by the rising anxiety of their peers.

"Damned demons don't know when to quit. Bastards," Reios muttered as he pulled his katana over to his left hip, meanwhile unaware that he had spoken in English.

"They can be very tenacious at times, I admit," Eriol replied, and surprisingly in the same language. Even with the situation at hand, everyone present offered him a quick look of amazement before realizing that he was still from England, so of course he could speak English.

"Enough wasting time, let's go," Syaoran put in impatiently, taking off down the street before any of the others had a chance to comment and stall them further. Instead they shot off after him as best they could, with Touya and Yukito following closely behind.

With the panicked rush that the others were going at, Touya didn't need to guess at what was probably going on. From what he had understood of Yue's explanation from the previous night, there were some kind of spirit or spirits at work. Ones that had taken on a physical form and were now wreaking havoc amongst the town. It hadn't really sounded all that different from anything else that had happened to them in the past, after he had done some thinking about it, but there was one difference from it all that Yue had made very sure that Touya understood: the stakes in play were for life itself, this time.

Between small pants of breath, Syaoran remarked, "There's no one around here! These streets are completely empty!"

And it was true. For all the mild bustling of the traffic and midday shoppers that had been going about their day just minutes before, the streets and sidewalks were now completely devoid of all life. Even those buildings and nearby shops with windows all showed that their rooms were completely deserted. Yukito, upon realizing this fact, wasted no time in giving in to the transformation. In the span of just a few seconds, the silver-haired man gave way for the majestically robed form of his truer alter-ego. Yue quickly took off into the cloud-blotted skies above without a second thought.

"It will be the work of whatever is up ahead," Eriol noted, pulling at memories from his previous stay in Tomoeda, "They won't want any form of interference, and so they've influenced the region to become barren of life – except for us. It is similar to the spell that I used during my time here from before, to keep prying eyes away from Sakura's activities."

"They? You mean that..." Syaoran trailed off, unwilling to believe what lay ahead for them.

Eriol acknowledged the unfinished query, "The power that we just felt was far greater than that of even the strongest of any single elemental spirit. It is more than likely that those five elements that remain have joined forces and are preparing to attack us upon our arrival. They will wait for us, knowing that we are the only ones who can properly respond to their threat. Come, this way!"

Eriol broke ahead of the group and shot down a side alley, following the source of the corrupted energy as it centered itself in upon the town. The others quickly followed behind, doing their best to keep up in the tight quarters that the obstacle-laden alley provided. When they came through to the other end, they noted that they were on the opposite side of the street that ran along the town square. A beautiful, wide-basin stone fountain was set into that square, with elegantly carved wooden benches and shade-filled dedicuous trees lined all around it.

That square was also the focal point for all the magical emanations that they were feeling.

Reios immediately drew his katana into the open, crossing the street carefully while trying to be mindful of all potential dangers. Sakura followed immediately behind him, with everyone else all keeping in close proximity to her. By now, the feelings of evil and corruption were invading their every senses, much to the point that they could actually see the spiritual decay in the air around them. It was throwing their visual environment into a thin, purple hue, a contrasting of light aided by the blotting out of the storm-covered sun and the recently-clear springtime skies. They could even smell and taste the saturated corruption in each breath they took.

Sakura and Reios both stopped their approach to the fountain as they came to a nearby bench on the far side of the street, the source of the corruption becoming too great for them to resist. While the others gathered around them, Sakura looked up and into the roiling sky above her. Those skies were continually building up with a clouded darkness, forming into what would soon enough become a furious electrical storm. She had a strong feeling that the storm had something to do with whatever lay in wait for them, but there was something else too. Something that was almost being camouflaged within the dark gray coloring of the clouds. Small objects hovering far and directly above the fountain. Three orbs, each one just a bit smaller than the size of a baseball, and each one the color of granite rock. She instinctively knew what those were.

Syaoran caught notice of her glance and looked up for himself, sighting the objects in turn. He answered her unasked question, "That's them, there's no mistake. The elemental charms that my sisters carried. There should be four, but we already took care of the flower one. The seals placed upon the charms have completely failed, too. You can see it in the coloring."

"With Clow's power no longer in existence, and the spirits focusing their own strength through the properties of their own prisons, it has drained away the crystals' ability to function," Eriol examined, turning his gaze as Yue circled about above them once before landing. Once Yue was safely on the ground, he brought his attention onto the crystals spheres once again, "They will soon break."

A flash of blue and silver took Eriol's attention back to Yue as the winged guardian readied one of his magic arrows for use. In slow, deliberate movements, he armed his bow, raised the arch of that bow skyward, and sighted one of the motionless crystals. He took his time in drawing back the moonbeam string, ceremoniously pacing himself for the task at hand, carefully watching for any signs of a preemptive attack. Even though his targets were motionless and defenseless, there would be no accounting for an error in accuracy at this point. The risks were too high to allow for it.

Moments before release, Yue instinctively dispelled his power, dissipating both bow and arrow into nothingness as a familiar hand dropped down onto his shoulder.

"Destroying them will accomplish nothing," Eriol said quietly to the silver guardian, "for it will only confirm what they, in their insanity, currently believe: that we are a threat to them. Then they will be fully lost to us. Besides, they will want to wait until all of the players are in their positions, so we are not in any rush. I assume you noted Kerberos flying in our direction?"

Not even having finished the sentence, Kerberos's true form appeared from overtop one of the taller office buildings. He circled about once above the town square to examine the situation thoroughly, before alighting beside his former master. Even though a visual scan told him that all was calm, he could practically smell the stench of dark contamination in the air.

He also made damn sure, this time, to keep a careful mind on Sakura's position and status. He would not leave her to fight on her own, this time, and in the process let the annoying Li kid steal all the glory.

"What's going on?" the golden lion asked insistently, "Where is the enemy?"

Eriol's reply and gaze were both to the point, "They have come."


	24. The Celestial Three

_3-7c: The Celestial Three  
_

"Destroying them will accomplish nothing," Eriol said quietly to the silver guardian, "for it will only confirm what they, in their insanity, currently believe: that we are a threat to them. Then they will be fully lost to us. Besides, they will want to wait until all of the players are in their positions, so we are not in any rush. I assume you noted Kerberos flying in our direction?"

Not even having finished the sentence, Kerberos's true form appeared from overtop one of the taller office buildings. He circled about once above the town square to examine the situation thoroughly, before alighting beside his former master. Even though a visual scan told him that all was calm, he could practically smell the stench of dark contamination in the air.

He also made damn sure, this time, to keep a careful mind on Sakura's position and status. He would not leave her to fight on her own, this time, and in the process let the annoying Li kid steal all the glory.

"What's going on?" the golden lion asked insistently, "Where is the enemy?"

Eriol's reply and gaze were both to the point, "They have come."

The skies darkened further as though night were approaching, finally allowing a full and unhindered view of the now mobile crystalline orbs. Their first movements were slow, almost sluggish, as they began to follow each other about in a wide circle. Next they began to pick up in speed, chasing each other above the stone fountain in an endless circular dance, and ever increasing in their tempo. Within several seconds, they had disappeared within a blur of their own images, creating the illusion of a dark and grim halo. Crackles of static electricity began to shoot about randomly along the edges of the illusion, an excess of energy that was quickly increasing in intensity. That energy was proceeded and matched by a rumbling in the now pitch-black clouds above them, with varying veiled flashes displaying the hidden threat of the full-grown storm. Before long, the entire scene above the plaza was one of lightning and darkness.

A bolt of deafening lightning crashed down from above and straight into the center of the halo, striking against an energy barrier that had been formed by the three orbs. The lightning was then absorbed by the halo's barrier, which immediately started to glow with the blueish-white coloring of that lightning. The glowing aura soon expanded to envelop the entire thing, and the halo's glowing continued to grow in intensity even after the lightning's glass-shattering thunderclap had dissipated, practically blinding everyone against any further spectating.

Though their vision was impaired, their hearing remained untouched beyond the slight ringing in their ears that had remained from the thunder. So instead they listened as the three orbs finally shattered under the stress of the magic and energy that had been merged with them, accompanied by the sounds of several hundreds of glass objects raining and crashing against a hardened surface . All at once, the blindness ceased, replaced instead by yet more fear-inducing noises: a flurry of curses and maddening howls that assaulted their ears. Screams and cries of melancholy and everything unholy filled the air, granting them the notion that Hell itself had come to visit their fair world. Sakura instinctively backed off into the relative protection of her friends as she watched five incorporeal, ghost-like wisps chase and spiral their way around the fountain before they headed up and away into the sky, disappearing into the thickened mass of the clouds therein.

The chasing spirits took with them their banshee cries and wailing screams, though their departure was accented by one final flash and roar of lightning and thunder. With both crazed demons and rumbling lights having left them behind, the plaza was soon put once again into a state of peace. An eerily silent one, granted, for the continued ringing in their ears made the silence almost as loud as the cacophony of chaos from before, but it was peaceful all the same. Everyone scanned their surroundings carefully, attempting to discern any form of change or magical manipulation being worked to the scenery around them. Yet aside from the continually growing mass of clouds above them, nothing odd could be noticed. The presences of the five demons were slowly fading away as they fled from the scene, but those that could feel this could tell that they had not completely gone from this place. Even though the color-tinting corruption that had blanketed the area was starting to dissipate, they could feel that something had remained behind.

Despite this, Eriol merely crossed his arms and half-grinned to himself, "So our five opponents gathered together merely to try and demoralize us, hmm? Then it was just a simple scare tactic, nothing more. And as I now recall, spirits like these are often subject to the lures of melodrama and suspense. Typical of them to act this way, I guess."

Reios, who had moved up ahead of the group and was now busy examining the fountain up close and personal, huffed indignantly, "Heh, if that was melodrama, then I'm a Hollywood celebrity. Nah, that was definitely more like completely psychot... ah crap–!"

The rising hairs on the back of his neck forced out Reios's cursing, words uttered alongside his immediate diving away from the electrical charge that was building up in the air around him.

At one moment, the fountain before them sat there silently in its pool of water, majestic and graceful. A beautiful symbol of citizenry's pride for their beloved town.

At the next moment, however, its majestic beauty was erased forever when it was blasted into oblivion by a fierce lance of yellow lightning and deafening thunder. Shards of cement, debris, and water flew out in all directions from the explosion of electricity.

Fortunately for them, Eriol had sensed the build-up of energy long before Reios had even thought to dodge away, and had silently worked a spell to counter the attack. The larger chunks of flying debris bounced harmlessly off of each of them as though they had been made of nothing more than foam. And yet, though the sudden barrage of cement and stone did little to injure them in any form or fashion, the massive plumes of rising dust still managed to impair their efforts to breathe. Sounds of coughing and wheezing filled the square as they did their best to breathe in as little of the fouled air as possible.

When the gray mist-like dust clouds surrounding them finally began to disperse, the "how" of their dispersal made Sakura take notice of a large, glowing form hovering above them. There was the slow yet constant beating of a bird's wings coming from it, and from the heavy thumping sounds of the winds being regularly shot away from those wings, it was an enormous bird at that. Perhaps as big as her Fly card's physical form.

A gusting breeze stirred through the empty streets with each flapping beat, wiping away the last of the dust clouds that were hanging above and around them. What was eventually revealed to them was an eagle-like creature that was far oversized for its race. Indeed, it probably _was_ just as big as the Fly. Its feathers, and the entirety of its body for that matter, were a complete shade of dark yellow, contrasted sharply by its deep red eyes. Each beat of its wings sent arcs of visible static electricity flying into the air around it, arcs that were then absorbed back into its feathers to course about its wings and body once more.

One of those fleeing spirits had decided to make an encore appearance.

"Humans chosen to represent your kind, hear me!" Its voice was thunder incarnate, each word from its beak a thunderclap in the air around them. It was all they could do to not cover their ears and cower before it as it landed atop the half-shattered remains of what had once been the town plaza's fountain.

Eriol took the floor before the electrified bird could continue, "Noble Wakį́yą, sacred wings of thunder and lightning! _You_ will hear _me_! There is no need to proceed like this! Do you not remember who you once were, of where your purpose and desires lay before?"

The giant bird cocked its head to the side to glare its left eye at Eriol, amazed that this lowly human had the gall to question it. However, it was in a good mood, and therefore decided to humor the lowly human's words, "The past is only what _once_ mattered, yet no longer. Now is the present, with the future ahead of us. What matters now is what I _now_ desire, and what my purpose has been deemed to be.

"You, Clow, whom claims to know of my desire. You are the worst of the lot! Always thinking that you know what is best for all of the world. Always thinking that you know how the future should be determined. Always deciding what the role of others must be. You who seeks to control all of existence even after death! Believing in the strength of justice that your fellow humans hold, when it only covers their inherent weaknesses!"

The bird of thunder snapped its left wing out, and from that wing shot out a large bolt of yellow lightning, arcing away to strike viciously into a nearby building. The resulting explosion shattered both glass and stone alike into dust. What remained through these newest showers of dust and debris was a large hole the size of a small house, with the half-intact insides of the building now visible for all to see.

A mix of emotions ran through those that the great bird now faced, as it could sense everything within them. Both their fear and their anger, their confusion and their lust for retribution. It relished in such feelings, for such feelings only proved it all the more correct.

"In weakness, humans show their true identities. In cowardice, they reveal the inner darkness which is now prevalent in all of the life they have touched; damaged; destroyed. Their very existence corrodes the planet around them, yet they care not for the consequences they create!"

The other wing snapped up from its side, sending another bolt arcing across the street nearby them and into an abandoned car. It immediately exploded into a ball of flames and shrapnel, the fires engulfing the vehicle until it had disappeared completely behind the miniature sun that the gas-fueled inferno had created.

Even through all the plumes of dust and smoke that were now covering the plaza, Sakura could see straight into the sharp, blood-red eye that was continually watching them. Against the innocence that she now knew had to be lurking there within it, there stood at the forefront a disturbing glint of pleasure, mixed in together with the overwhelming madness that had forcibly taken it. It was enjoying the destruction that it was causing.

"That's enough!" Sakura yelled up to it, "What right do you have to speak against us as a race, when you yourself revel in the same influences that you claim drive us!?"

The change in the spirit's glaring eye suggested a malicious grin, even though its eagle-like beak was unable to perform such an act. It cocked its head about to glare its other eye at Sakura, "I have the right because the will of the new Earth has deemed the human race as a threat to its existence! It has summoned us to, once again, purge all of that existence from its old surface so that it might begin anew the flow of life that it creates. It wishes to wash itself clean of the sickness that covers it!

"There was once a point when your race was close to achieving harmony with the will of the planet. That time was manifest in the original physical form of the Clow Reed that stands here now. He had the ability to take you humans into your destiny, but instead he chose to allow the continuation of decay and pollution that humans have forever been prone to. Thus has he cursed you all to a fatal destiny, one of a downward-spiralling destruction that will occur by your own hand, and end by the wills of me and mine!"

Sakura turned to face her friends, her will purely determined to contain this threat and return the spirit to the original self that she knew had to be there within it. But for them to challenge such an aggressive foe, they would need the combined powers of everyone present. With this in mind, she began to plan their attack.

She turned to face her love, "Syaoran, I'm counting on you to take care of Tomoyo and my brother."

"I'm not getting pushed into the back lines. I'm fighting alongside you," he said sternly, stubbornly holding his place without even looking towards her. He was quite aware of how selfish he had just sounded, to leave people defenseless like that, but he absolutely refused to be removed from her side.

"But..."

Syaoran interrupted her again before she could fully object, and this time he glared directly at her, "These 'spirits' almost killed you once already! I'm not going to let them get that far again! No, I'm staying with you. I'll find a way to protect them, somehow."

Reios shook his head at Syaoran's stubbornness, "Don't be so cocky. Even _I_ know that such a feat is near to impossible, and I barely know what I'm doing. I'll stay back and protect them, instead. Besides, it would do me some good to watch how the experts in magic play it out."

"I don't need any protecting," Touya cut in sharply, stepping up behind Yue regardless of the apparent risks, "I'll stay with Yuki until this is over."

"Whatever," Reios muttered, raising a scrutinizing eyebrow at the man's obviously uninformed decision, though he just as easily shrugged it off. Less work for him, this way. He then turned about towards Tomoyo, catching her gaze and her attention before asking of her, "Do you trust me to keep you safe?"

Tomoyo was quite taken off guard with the purpose – and more importantly, the timing – of the unexpected question that had been posed to her. And to be truly honest with herself, she wasn't exactly sure on how to answer him. She had dutifully trusted in Sakura's decision to trust in him, and that likely would never have changed. Up until about five seconds ago, that had been more than enough for her, but now she was being asked to place her own trust in him directly. And yet, after what had occurred to them just a couple of days ago, her ability to place her trust in another was still quite shaken up. But at the moment, there was a very limited selection of options available to her, and she knew it. At the least, she chose to believe that Sakura would be there for her if it came right down to it. With this in mind, she nodded sharply to his query.

In return, he smiled in reassurance, "Good. Take cover behind that tree across the street. I'll join you shortly."

He watched for a moment as she obediently trotted off towards the oak-like tree that he had indicated, pausing for a moment longer to chuckle as he noticed a flash of silver emerge from her right side. The girl seemed to be determined to record every single event, and didn't let any form of danger stand in her way. _Would've made a good sorceress, with that strength of spirit_, he thought to himself.

Several loud strikes of thunder brought their attention back around as the spirit spoke once again, "Your ignorance to your own awaiting deaths is, at the very least, irritating. Do you have so little respect for the strength that you face that you would idle about and talk amongst yourselves? Turn and challenge me, or I will strike before you can–"

"Have some bloody, god-damned patience already!!" Reios shouted viciously overtop of the booming voice, spinning about on the winged spirit with an equally vicious stare. It took him a moment to realize that, in his temper tantrum, he had let his control of language slip again. That didn't really seem to hinder the spirit's understanding of those words, though, as the oversized eagle's mood had instantly and visibly soured before the vulgar command that had been thrown at it.

"Huh. I guess it understands English," Reios muttered to those around him.

Eriol corrected him, "Actually, spirits have the ability to understand the intended meaning behind one's words. They cannot understand actual languages so much as they can empathically translate what is expressed. At any rate, we have forestalled the inevitable long enough. Let us begin."

The three Cardcaptors took to the cue, each of them revealing to the world the focus of their powers. As their minds laid into each point of focus, an ethereal wind began to pick up to stir along with the the revived storm winds already flying about them. Within moments the entire plaza was enveloped within a strong aura of magical and elemental winds, responding in kind to the awakening powers of the three sorcerers.

As one, they began to chant the incantations of release:

"Key that hides the Powers of the Light..."

"Key that hides the Powers of the Dark..."

"Key that hides the Powers of the Stars..."

_...show your true form before me!_

Three golden circles appeared beneath them, all overlapping each other in their close proximity. The ethereal winds that had gathered around them focused upon the boundaries of these circles, creating several whirlwinds all along the circles' outer edges.

"I, Reios..."

"I, Eriol..."

"I, Sakura..."

_...command you under our contract!_

_RELEASE!_

The three keys – each enveloped within their own auras of energy – spiraled out of control, desperately seeking an escape from the confines of their false forms. Achieving that escape, they each formed into their own respective instrument of control, prompting their three masters to steal them away from the air and wield them with the authority granted to them by their cards and aligned powers.

When the winds had finally died back down, with the plaza clear and relatively silent once again, before the spirit stood three youths of immeasurable magic. The three progenies of the greatest sorcerer ever to live, and they themselves now wielded the results of his great, celestial power – that of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars . Each one of them was determined to allow no further destruction to occur on the spirit's part, and each one knew that they had the strength to see that determination through.

"An impressive display of acting," the spirit called down to them, even as its enormous wings lifted it up and back into the sky, "a wonderful example of human arrogance and self-righteousness. So you believe that, by displaying a mock demonstration of your strength, you will waver my resolve? Allow me, then, to demonstrate the true extent of your potentials, and just how pitifully low they truly are."


	25. Against the Storm

_3-7d: Against the Storm_

When the winds had finally died back down, with the plaza clear and relatively silent once again, before the spirit stood three youths of immeasurable magic. The three progenies of the greatest sorcerer ever to live, and they themselves now wielded the results of his great, celestial power – that of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. Each one of them was determined to allow no further destruction to occur on the spirit's part, and each one knew that they had the strength to see that determination through.

"An impressive display of acting," the spirit called down to them, even as its enormous wings lifted it up and back into the sky, "a wonderful example of human arrogance and self-righteousness. So you believe that, by displaying a mock demonstration of your strength, you will waver my resolve? Allow me, then, to demonstrate the true extent of your potentials, and just how pitifully low they truly are."

They all split up into three groups, slowing spreading themselves out around the great eagle, surrounding its left flank as it readied to make its first move. It flew itself higher into the air, placing an increased effort into its wings to maintain its place in the sky, while beneath its massive talons, forming over its old perch atop the fountain, a crackling yellow sphere of electrical energy came into view. It was just barely managing to maintain its own cohesion as arcs and bolts of lightning wove around and along it, dancing about like flares along the surface of the sun. And when the spirit cried high into the evening sky, a sound resembling that of a roaring storm front more than of an eagle's call, the ball exploded to send three separate streams of lightning towards the three separate groups that stood in futile defiance against it.

By intuition and instinct, Eriol and Sakura immediately called upon their Shield cards to protect against the arcing lances, just in time to avoid any form of injury. Reios, on the other hand, with his lack of experience, was not so fortunate on the reaction time. While he still managed to activate his own Shield card to deflect the lightning, he was knocked back several paces in the effort, placing his portion of the spirit's maintained, three-way attack dangerously close to Tomoyo's position.

He wanted to feel relief for having managed to get lucky, except that he could feel his inner strength being torn away from him for each second that the maintained lance of lightning was allowed to assault him. Bit by bit, the power of the Shield continued to sap into his spiritual energy in order to maintain the magical barrier that was keeping him and his charge safe. Gritting his teeth, he placed the tip of his silvered sword against the inside of the barrier, all but praying for it to remain active, and for him to stay conscious through it all. This wasn't going to end well.

Even through his desperate situation, he took note that the other two groups were in a similar situation to his own, and silently cursed his own helplessness. He wondered what he could possibly do to help, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to get anywhere while he was pinned down like this.

For Sakura, the pressure of having to maintain the barrier created by the Shield was bearable, but only just. It was still being a potent drain upon her reserves, and it was one that she knew she would not be able to keep up forever. Syaoran could see this clearly, as well, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before her focus began to waver and the Shield started to dissipate. They also needed to go on the offensive if they were to get anything done here. He closed his eyes, taking up the familiar black charm into his hands. Soon enough he had it formed into his loyal sword. The depiction of an elemental summoning flew above him, landing against the flat of his sword as he focused his thoughts into creating that offensive.

"Kashin, shôrai!"

His chosen element struck and swirled about against the curved inside of the Shield, mixing in its bright, dancing flames with the white light of the Shield's defensive reaches until together they were combating against the corrupted power of the thunder bird's own lightning on an equal footing. Yet the sudden force of Sakura's defense spell doubling in power ended up being too much for the Shield, forcing it to eventually explode outward in the semblance of an attack, in order to safely dispense its excess magic. The resulting turnabout of power ended up reflecting the lightning bolt back towards its creator, with the spirit only just barely managing to dodge away from its own magic.

Relieved at being out of danger, and moderately fatigued by the efforts that she had just put up, Sakura willingly fell backwards to lean up against the nearby Syaoran. She closed her eyes under his eventual embrace, using that relaxing warmth to try and regain some of her strength so as to issue a counterattack, though not before stealing an appreciative glance at him.

Their successful defensive had a side-effect, however, and Eriol was none too happy to have to deal with it. As the first of the three arcs of sustained lightning was dispersed, he could feel the strength of the one pounding and pulsing against his own Shield increase twice over. At first, he could have easily maintained such a defensive indefinitely, but now he was being required to actually put in an amount of effort that would soon drain him of any retaliatory ability.

Thinking to invoke another card in an attempt to turn the tide of the fight, he noticed the pressure against the Shield suddenly lighten considerably. Two quick glances revealed that both Kerberos and Yue were directing their own energies into a pair of reflective fields just outside of the Shield's range, resulting in them taking nearly half of the burden of defending onto themselves. He grinned appreciatively at their quick thinking, taking advantage of the momentary respite to launch a raw-magic energy bolt from the tip of his staff, mustering into it every ounce of power that he could bring into focus. The resulting explosive contact between the two powers of crimson moon energy and raging lightning sent the spirit's attack spiraling back the way it had originally come, though the giant bird once again dodged the reflected attack.

Eriol and his four-person party immediately regrouped to Sakura's position, though he was careful to make sure that the thunder bird was still occupied with maintaining what was left of its attack magic. He took a brief moment to verify everyone's conditions as acceptable, then turned his attention towards trying to find an opening in that attack that he could use to assist the remaining, lone defender, and preferably before he became completely exhausted. Eriol and Sakura had had valuable assistance in reflecting the thunder bird's powerful assault, but this was something that Reios was sorely lacking in.

And as the last one left to defend against the attack, Reios staggered heavily as the intensity of the enemy's magic practically tripled against him. If not for the yet-untapped reserves of willpower that he wasn't even aware that he had possessed, he was certain that his Shield card would have given in way before now. As it was, he now fought at purely remaining conscious over the drain against his soul. It was all he could do just to maintain the mental connection between himself and the card that he manipulated.

The force of the drain became too much just as he thought of it, dropping him to his knees. He was horribly and visibly shaken, and recoiled in fear as the Shield's physical presence began to visibly waver in and out of existence. Small arcs of electricity escaped into the areas protected by its barrier, striking black holes into the nearby ground and building walls. The Shield was making a noticeable effort to concentrate its power and divert the escaped lightning away from its master, but they both knew that such efforts would not last much longer.

One such arc of electricity shot past and far behind him, causing a small shriek from someone nearby. Fatigued as he was, at first the voice's presence didn't make much sense. Who the hell would risk being nearby him at a time like this? But then, he had to have had a purpose for putting his life on the line in the first place, right? Upon remembering this, he recalled that which he had to protect. He also knew that the spirit was winning. At this rate, it would soon kill both Tomoyo and himself.

"Damn it, you fool, get out of there!" Touya yelled at him, but Reios's point-blank-range proximity to the lightning attack effectively drowned away any sound coming from outside of the Shield's protective bounds in a cacophony of thunderous rage. Yet, even through the glare of the multitudes of lightning flashes, he still managed to sight Touya's silent shouts trying to reach him. He knew what was being said well enough, that he should pack up shop and get the hell out of there. But even if he had wanted to, his current physical condition didn't exactly allow for an escape attempt anyway. And from what little else he could see, his comrades were too busy recovering from their own defensives to be able to help assist in his own efforts any time soon.

He knew that he had to stay, even though he knew that his odds of survival were definitively dwindling towards non-existent. How would he be able to live with himself if he were to abandon his duty?

His duty was to protect, and his life was devoted to duty. Retreat was not an option.

Something within him awakened at that moment, almost as though a foreign object within his spirit had shattered. He instinctively knew that the seal upon his magic, the one that Kero had broken through to discover his magical alignment, had been completely obliterated. Left unobstructed, every bit of strength that he had left rushed out from the deepest parts of his soul and into his white-knuckled hands. This new surge of power merged with the silver sword that he held and found its way to the very core of the Shield card, empowering it once more.

With everything that he had, Reios took to his feet again, but his eyes immediately glazed over with such an effort. It was too much for him. The burden was far too great for him to bear, even at this newly-found apex of his power. He found it impossible to concentrate. For everything that he now had to give, with everything now devoted to this fight, the demon that he stood against was still winning. It all seemed so pointless.

Until the cry of fear that he had heard only moments before replayed in his mind, over and over again.

His eyes cleared with a determination he had never before known, and he knew that this trial could not break him. At the same time, his sword began to visibly glow with the aura of its inherent dark power, an effect that was visible even to Tomoyo's non-magicked eyesight as she watched one-eyed from behind her tree. An inhuman strength overtook both his body and his mind, with his gaze soon turning that strength upon the monster hovering above them. That monster, even in all its confidence and superior ability, hesitated at the surge of power that it had felt.

Reios cried out into the near-deserted plaza, a sound of feral rage indistinguishable from that of any wild animal of similar tone. His sword arm came around from behind him and swung over his head in a full circle, swinging hard into and slicing the Shield in half, dispelling it instantly. The lightning that had coursed all along its barrier sparked and jumped at the sudden change in reality, striking the tip of the sword as the two entities met up along their destined paths. But unlike before, where Reios had absorbed Syaoran's magic-induced lightning, _this_ lightning shot back towards the giant bird above like a baseball being struck away in mid-flight. Between its hesitation and the utter surprise at having its full power reflected, the spirit failed to realize the imminent danger and was subsequently struck by the full force of its own power. The scream of agony that escaped its beak as it was forcefully shot backwards through the air was nigh unto intolerable to those listening.

The loud, crushing boom of impact erupted out into the plaza, as the spirit's physical form flew fast into the wall of the small department store behind it, causing half of the building to cave in on it as it landed unconscious onto the ground below. For what effects Sakura and the others could hear and see of the giant bird's crash landing, they could only begin to imagine of what it must have felt like. The fact that they could hear bones snapping and cracking against the crashing of the building's tumbling rubble just made it all the more painful to have to hear. The sounds of struggle and chaos fell quiet long before any of the dust clouds had managed to clear away from the devastation.

But even with the multitude the collateral damage littered all around them, as well as their defeated opponent still in question, the primary concern on everyone's minds was to regroup and recover. For Sakura, that meant making sure that Tomoyo and Reios were all right. She was the first to rush over, stopping just short of Reios's position as Tomoyo met up with him first. The raven-haired girl was already kneeling to try and hold him steady from his state of half-consciousness.

"Are you two okay!?" Sakura asked fervently, "Reios, snap out of it!"

To Reios, though, the world was awash in a haze of dust clouds, blurred confusion, and a painfully incessant wailing in his ears. It all made the identity of that voice a mystery to him. It took him quite a while to realize that there was a pair of hands holding him up even as he did his own best to remain moderately upright, with his sword once again having become a supportive crutch. Eventually he shook off the absolute desire for sleep that once again desired to claim him into unconsciousness, forcing his eyes to look up at those around him. He glanced around slowly to regain his bearings, putting on a convincing grin for Tomoyo when his eyes next found hers. He took a moment more, though, before attempting to stand fully upright on his own.

"I'll... be f... fine. Just... had a lot take... taken out of me... is all. Thanks for the concern, though," he added once he was fully upright, once again flashing a smile of gratitude for Tomoyo, and then Sakura. That smile was quickly replaced by a scrunched and contorted face as a massive headache overtook him, which was enough to force him down onto one knee again in order to keep himself from collapsing. Tomoyo immediately moved back into place to hold him steady again.

"Okay, spoke too soon. Damn, that hurts...!" he groaned, squeezing at the edges of his forehead with his fingers in a vain attempt to control the pain. It felt like someone had slapped the inside of his head with a gardening spade. But if there was one good thing to come out of this, it was that all this pain was preventing his magically drained body from falling asleep, at least.

Despite understanding that Reios was in a decent amount of agony at the moment (he had, after all, just literally thrown his entire being against a superior foe. Such an overexertion of power was close to too much for even the strongest of human minds to handle), Eriol was convinced enough of everyone's overall well being to try and bring their collective attention to other concerns. He looked back behind them to the crumbled building where the thunder bird had fallen to, peering through the lingering dust clouds to check for any notable movement. At first, he spotted nothing, and considered the spirit to still be rendered unconscious. And yet, something about the air around them did not feel right.

An instinct from within flew to the front of his mind, and at once he grabbed at Sakura's arm. He violently pulled her away with him as he jumped back as hard as he could, though his rash actions nearly threw her to the ground in the process. He may have almost injured Sakura, and he certainly had just given her a vicious fright, but at least she was now safe. Reios and Tomoyo, however, were still within harm's way.

"Reios, Tomoyo, take cover!"

Reios looked up at Eriol's shouted warning, still fighting against his pounding head, and through the remaining plumes of dust found a glowing red eye staring directly at him from across the plaza. Bolts of lightning arced all around it and the head it was set to, giving him the feeling that something disastrous was about to happen. He wouldn't have time to act with a card, he knew that for sure, so he did the next best thing possible.

"Out of the way!" he shouted, recklessly shoving Tomoyo hard into Sakura's direction. The surprised girl was quickly caught by her best friend before she could stumble and fall, and thus was kept from any form of physical harm, but in the end it was only enough to save one of them.

A singular stream of pure energy shot straight from the grounded bird's gaping jaws, joining together in mid-course with its arcing bouts of electricity to form an unstoppable force of magic. There was no time to react further, and without any defenses to even try to protect himself with, Reios was taken by the full force of the attack. A loud crack of energy striking physical resistance broke throughout the air, followed by several dull thumps as Reios tumbled and rolled none too gently into the nearby street.

His final struggle was put towards mouthing a curse against the demon, but he succumbed to the rest his body so craved before letting off not much more than a simple sigh.

"Reios!" came Sakura's shrill scream, her call accompanied by various gasps and cries of disbelief and horror from the others. The rush of flapping wings averted her attention momentarily as the spirit took flight once again, despite its multitude of both obvious and supposed debilitating injuries. With screams and wild cursing, it rambled on and on almost incoherently about having been violated by lower life forms, filling the air with the constant crashing of its deafening voice. Sakura's tolerance for all the senseless violence and destruction, at that point, broke. Enough was enough, and it was time that she dealt with it.

She took a moment to reassure herself of Tomoyo's safety, then detached herself from her friend to take a stand against the raging spirit above her. A rare and potent fury welled up within her, fueling her power and resolution to take this spirit down by whatever means necessary.

To this end, she shouted out against the storm of feather-borne cursing, "Eriol, tie it down, quickly!"

He responded swiftly, "Cover and constrict our raging foe! Windy!"

His chanted words, which were followed by a reflexive set of actions, saw to the release of the avatar of wind. Eriol's version of the Windy rushed headlong into the spirit's airspace without so much as a slight of hesitation, diving underneath and then behind it. It weaved and darted around and about the great eagle's body, tying up the giant bird into wind-formed bonds before it even had a chance to be surprised by the onslaught. Though it did its best to fight against the Windy's hold, it merely crashed back into the earth with a thunderous shriek of rage and pain.

With the beast safely tied down, Sakura instinctively pulled out one of her own cards, and threw it up into the air to take its place above the Star Wand, "Thunder!"

"No, don't use the same element!" Syaoran warned her, but it was too late. The thunder beast had already formed, and was launching its rushing attack against the spirit before them even as his words rang out. The Thunder's physical form quickly collided with the spirit in a loud clap of exploding energy, yet instead of having a minimal effect as Syaoran had expected, the Thunder's tackling charge managed to actually accomplish the exact opposite. The attack forced yet another booming scream of agony from the spirit, one louder (and brighter) than any other that it had produced so far.

When the Thunder's blinding and ear-piercing attack finally dissipated, what was left to them was a simplistic, yellow-feathered and oversized eagle that was no longer encased within coursing bouts of electricity, its bloodied body and shattered wings still bound tightly within ropes of elemental wind. It was breathing laboriously in a half-conscious state.

"How did you do that?" Syaoran asked to Sakura, "A 'fight fire with fire' offensive isn't exactly a workable maneuver in magic, you know."

"It has to do with the alignment of that certain element," was the reply, though Syaoran was habitually loathed to hear it coming from Eriol, "As the spirit was taken by an evil-based desire, its power was drawn from the elemental planes as a negative-energy source. Sakura's Thunder spell was, on the other hand, based purely on good intent, and thus drew its strength from a positive-energy source of the same element. The stronger of the two would then win out by negating the other with its own power. And because the spirit had been so gravely injured by that point, it had had little chance of success. It's not all that dissimilar to inserting a set of batteries into a machine, if you wish to go with the scientific route."

Sakura didn't exactly care how she had done it. That she had acted out of simple instinct suggested that it had been the Thunder card's idea to attack, but again she didn't really care. The only thing that mattered was that she had succeeded. The thunder spirit's power had diminished greatly, she could sense, much to the point that it hopefully no longer had the ability to cause them any further harm. With that, her concerns soon turned to another part of the town square, and understandably so. With the battle once again quieted, she watched anxiously as her elder brother took the moment to rush over to Reios's side.

Touya knelt down in the middle of the street where Reios had stopped, and immediately grabbed at the fallen man's wrist with one hand to check for a pulse, while using his other hand to feel for any signs of breathing. His visible tensions eased up considerably as he soon noted both signs to be positive, and that the unconscious foreigner was still alive. Then his mind quickly went into overdrive as he considered the implications of how much power this new sorcerer must have used to be able to survive a direct blast like that. He threw a suspicious glance at Eriol, the reincarnated sorcerer who always seemed to know all the answers, but this time was met with a stubborn silence.

"He's still with us," he eventually called out to the others, "I don't know _how_... but he is."

Sakura, noting her brother's diagnosis, took solace in Reios's miraculous survival and allowed herself to turn back to the matter at hand. She approached the fallen spirit ever so cautiously, picking her way slowly around and through the debris field, watching carefully for any signs of movement or consciousness. A twitch of the wing, an arcing lance of electricity, anything that would indicate another sneak attack. But when the bird's eyes finally managed to flutter their way open, she could only see a clear, yet strained, awareness within them. The spirit had regained its original self.

A sad smile crept onto her face as she addressed it, "I'm sorry that we had to put you through all of that. Are... you okay?"

Even though it wore a beak, Sakura swore that she could see it smiling back at her. Its deep and powerful voice, while moderated in comparison to before, still boomed harshly back at her, "It is I who should be sorry, for in my madness I attacked you unprovoked. I am glad for this pain that you have caused me, for it has broken the dark one's hold of insanity upon my mind. His will shall most certainly be angered, for he has lost another one of his pets, and this pleases me greatly."

Sakura's smile reversed itself, the corners of her mouth being weighed down by the unanswered questions that were flowing back into her mind, "The dark one? Who is that? Why are you and your kind doing this to us?"

The eagle lifted its giant head slightly, though it was careful not to struggle against the winds of bondage that continued to hold it down, "Dear child of the Stars, know that we do not attack you willingly. Know that our minds and hearts have been stolen away, that they no longer belong to us alone. Our actions are not of our own choosing, and for this I beg for your forgiveness on behalf of all of my siblings. Guilt wracks upon me for the harm that I have unwillingly caused to you and your companions this day, though I make no excuses for all the damage that has been done to both you and to this place. That more harm shall yet chance to come to you and yours in the days ahead weighs heavily upon me.

"As for the dark one, the one whom binds us to himself under the laws of an ancient pact, know that he seeks the total control of all life, and that his almighty power will not come to rest at any point towards his goal – full and complete ownership of all the world's magic. His mind is closed to us, we who are linked with him, much that his purpose within this goal remains as a mystery. Yet we can sense the malice within him, even through his guards and defenses. We sense the hidden and perverse desires that drive his entire being, this disregard for all of life that drives him without remorse towards his ends. He would throw away everything that has been achieved, everything that lives upon this world, all for the sake of owning it for himself. I ask you, please use all caution against his power."

The spirit stalled for a moment, its eyes drawing up into the sky as if sensing something. After a time, it looked back to her, "How much do I wish that I could remain and tell you what little else that I know, but you must now do with me as you have done with those before me. Do this before the dark master comes to reclaim that which he has lost, as he already seeks to place his claws within my mind once again. Complete your task this night, and go forward with the blessing of all the elements. Prevail against your future trials."

Sakura nodded knowingly. Her desire to know the truth was terribly strong, almost to the point that she wanted to ignore her duty and force her questions upon it, but time was ever cruel as much as it was benevolent. She knew that their moment of peace together was at an end. She stood back to perform her task, willing her power to flow around her and into her wand. The magic circle of the Stars gently glowed beneath her as a result.

"Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Storms, be disjoined!"

Time and space flowed and twisted around the giant bird, a sickening visual of impossible bends and turns compressing the spirit's physical form into a singular point. Space and time soon imploded in upon themselves to produce the two remainders of the spirit's previous existence, the crystal and the aura. Sakura knelt down to claim the golden orb on the ground as her own, and to it she whispered insistently of her promises for redemption. She would save the great bird's remaining companions, and she would set them back into their own elements, free.

With her promises given, she twisted about and slipped the golden sphere underneath the main flap of her backpack, dropping it in alongside the other two crystals that she carried with her.


	26. Eye for an Eye

_3-7e: Eye for an Eye_

"Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Storms, be disjoined!"

Time and space flowed and twisted around the giant bird, a sickening visual of impossible bends and turns compressing the spirit's physical form into a singular point. Space and time soon imploded in upon themselves to produce the two remainders of the spirit's previous existence, the crystal and the aura. Sakura knelt down to claim the golden orb on the ground as her own, and to it she whispered insistently of her promises for redemption. She would save the great bird's remaining companions, and she would set them back into their own elements, free.

With her promises given, she twisted about and slipped the golden sphere underneath the main flap of her backpack, dropping it in alongside the other two crystals that she carried with her.

"He's coming to," her brother called quietly, and just like that everyone's eyes and feet were moving to the fallen warrior as he rolled over onto his back with a heavy moan. His eyes blinked open for a mere second before he slammed them back shut, cursing sharply against the absolute brightness of the swiftly clearing sky and late afternoon sun. His head still hurt, it seemed.

Eriol knelt in close, "Reios, are you all right? What is my name? Do you know where we are?" he asked sharply, trailing his power over the man's body to sense for any physical or spiritual injuries.

Oblivious to the questions, Reios instead countered him in a none-too-steady voice, "Did anyone... happen... to catch the license plate on that storm front...?"

In his state of delusion, Reios managed to confuse everyone by speaking the wrong language again. Eriol, however, understood him perfectly. Unable to find any faults through his tests of magic, he rose back to his feet with an amused grin and a light chuckle, "He'll be fine, although he's going to need at _least_ a few days worth of rest."

"Nothing a trip to the beach can't fix!" Tomoyo noted cheerfully.

"Ugh, what is it with me and picking myself up off of the ground today?" Reios asked in a more understandable language, a thick feel of annoyance in his voice as he struggled to sit upright. Between the aid of Syaoran and Touya, he soon enough found his way to his feet, though he still required the aid of his sword – as well as constant observation – to ensure that he remained vertical.

Now that his attention was acquirable, Sakura locked him into a serious stare, "Are you really okay?"

"Well, aside from feeling like the entire Eurasian _continent_ just landed on top of me? Yeah, I should be fine enough."

Sakura didn't seem to take with the exaggeration, and so asked again, "You're absolutely certain?"

Reios admired her persistence, but having to even think about a task as simple as a mere conversation was hurting his brain. And the rest of him. Nevertheless, he flashed her another of his confident grins, "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll sleep it off and be as good as new tomorrow."

Even though she was still ill at ease with his condition, Sakura allowed herself to feel at least a small amount of relief and revealed to him a small smile of her own, "I'm glad. So... what do we do now?"

As her next question was posed to Eriol, he pushed up his glasses before answering, "The danger has passed, for the time being," Eriol started, turning to stare at the bright yellow aura that was floating in the air nearby, "With the lightning spirit's mind sealed away, the one that is in control of them – the one that has created a binding pact with them – cannot influence it against us anymore. It is something that we will have to perform for all of our remaining opponents, which may prove to make our jobs quite difficult in the future. For now, however, all that remains to us is to dispel the spirit's power so that its magic cannot be further abused."

He turned to Reios, "And since you were the one that got beaten half-way to death, I would find it only fitting if you landed the final blow."

Suddenly forgetting that his whole body was in shambles, Reios figuratively came alive once again. The grin of a mischievous child marked his face, showing his desire for action. He had been hoping for something along the lines of what Eriol was suggesting, and he meant to take full advantage of it. In the interests of retaliation, he pulled a card from his pocket and forced himself against the pain to step into a combative stance.

"Hey, hey, don't be an idiot! Are you sure you should be exerting yourself again so soon?" Syaoran cautioned, but while the words were considered, they were also barely heeded. Besides, Syaoran knew that the aura before them could only be dispelled by a magic-based attack spell, though that also meant that any one of them could have performed this act. Why Eriol was allowing Reios to be so reckless was beyond his understanding.

"Eye for an eye," Reios muttered, setting his sights squarely upon the epicenter of the glowing aura. Not allowing anyone any time to question his English, he flung his card up into the air above him and struck at it sharply with the crystal orb that was embedded within the pommel of his sword.

"Strike at my enemy with the strength of the gods!"

The command brought forth a brilliant white light from within the crystal orb as it absorbed the card's sealed form. The orb then took to both emitting a searing light and simultaneously absorbing all forms of light that lingered around it, as though it were gathering up that light as the source for its spell. As the card held within the sword readied itself, Reios ceremoniously turned the tip of the blade to point directly at the aura. The blade itself soon began to glow with the same brilliant white that its mounted crystal contained, and still it continued to focus yet more of that light into itself.

When the crystal orb finally began to near critical mass, the sword shook about mildly with the effort of containing the card's power. Sensing an inevitable explosion of deadly light, Reios released the card's power.

"Force!"

The sword caused a recoil as strong as any firearm, releasing a beam of pure destructive energy straight into the core of the former spirit's aura of power. The two energies of light and lightning collided together and began combatting each other with a spectacular display of sparking lights, all for the right of survival. Streams and flashes of energy were flung about everywhere, beams of light countering arcing electricity. And once the energy attack from the sword started to fade away, so too did thunder bird's discarded aura of magic begin to fade away alongside, totally obliterated by the power that had been wielded against it. They could all smell the burnt away ozone that had resulted from the discharge of Reios's magic, the aftermath of what was a _blatantly_ excessive show of force.

Reios spun around with a triumphant grin plastered on his face, snatching his card out of the air as it materialized and floated back down towards him. Yet instead of amazement, or at the least an acceptance of a job well done, he rather found himself faced with stares of slack-jawed bewilderment. Though perhaps amazement was a factor in that as well, but they were definitely confused by _something_. Reios's brow furrowed down in confusion, glancing through each set of eyes in his audience to seek out some answers for their odd behavior. On the side, he noted that Eriol seemed as nonchalant as ever, and if anything the man was grinning mischievously again.

But from the few stories that he had already been told, Eriol was supposedly strange enough in his own right. So he instead asked Sakura, "Was it too much acting, maybe?"

Sakura shook her head, approaching him slowly, "No, it's just... may... may I see that card?"

Thinking it strange that she would want to see a card that she already knew about (that is, if Eriol's explanation about their two books being copies of the original was true), he all the same obliged her and handed over his card for her inspection. She examined it thoroughly, with both Syaoran and Tomoyo joining her to gaze inquisitively over the picture upon the card's surface: a singular ball of radiant light encasing a silhouetted humanoid form. The roman lettering at the bottom of the card even seemed to match the English-based word that had been used to summon its might.

It didn't take Reios long to realize that something was not right, and so he asked them, "What's wrong? Something about it that's different from yours?"

Sakura returned the unfamiliar card to him as she answered, "I've never seen this card before. There is no 'Force' Card in my set."

A moment of hesitation, and then everyone found themselves staring directly at Eriol for all the answers. The young sorcerer audibly laughed to himself, as he knew that he should have expected this. He _was_ the most qualified to answer these kinds of topics, after all, so it made complete sense. But still...

"His intentions for having done so as yet remain unclear to me. However, for whatever purpose it was that he had in mind, it seems that Clow Reed saw fit to edit the two new books that his latent spell had created to give four of the cards out of each set the potential for 'change'. One minor card out of each of the four primary elements that rule over them – that is, the Windy, Watery, Firey, and Earthy cards – was made into a blank slate upon their creation. These new cards would later alter themselves to better suit the abilities and personalities of the user. In this case, it would seem that one of Reios's new cards is this 'Force' Card, replacing the Power card if I had to guess."

"Be that as it may," Syaoran said, turning to the reckless warrior, "how did you know what this Force Card would do?"

"I asked it," Reios said, and quite simply at that, "We've discussed this already, remember?"

When met with only more looks of confusion, he added, "Oh, heh, right. I guess I never got around to that part, did I? Well, last night, after returning home from our little trip into the local park, my book finally opened itself for me. It must have sensed the fully released power of my new key, or something. Anyway, from within the deck of cards that had emerged and spontaneously started to circle about my head, a representative of the cards was chosen to speak with me. It was a fair bit disconcerting to have to talk to myself, I'll admit, but that's the Mirror Card for you.

"Anyway, for a good portion of the night, my new cards – through my Mirror's reflection – answered most of my questions about their various powers, abilities, and uses, as well as a few side abilities that one would expect to come included with magical artifacts. In the end, I learned a great deal about each specific card, their individual powers, and even a little about some of the cards' personalities. I must say that I've grown a bit fond of the Dash card in particular, although I don't think my cat likes him too much.

"However, none of them, at any point throughout our talks, revealed to me that there were differences between themselves and the original deck that they were copied from."

"Then you should have known how dangerous it could have been to use your cards in your current condition!" Syaoran barked, causing most of them to cringe slightly at the intensity in his voice.

Reios wondered lightly at why Syaoran was being so... insistent? But regardless of that, he remained steadfast against the man's concern, "It's all right. The cards themselves told me: while they now live to serve and work for me, they also care greatly for my well-being. They know of my inexperience, and that my magic is as much a newborn as they themselves are. They said that until I am able to gain full control of myself and my powers, they will only activate for me if it is safe for me to use them. It is a sense of dedication and trust that I hope to one day reciprocate."

Touya, while glad for the magic lesson, was forced to interrupt the conversation, "As much as I would like to know more about what the hell is going on, it's getting late. We should all start heading for home. Yuki and I will walk with you all as far as Sakura's house. I wouldn't mind saying hello to father, and it'll be interesting to see how the place is holding up now that it's just the monster taking care of things."

"What did you say!?" Sakura shot back instantly, her childhood rage flaring into action.

"I said that with a monster in charge of all the daily chores, I'll be surprised if the old house is still in one piece," Touya responded. A witty grin matched the pleased twinkle in his eyes, even though he had already turned away with the reformed Yukito to head for home, effectively hiding his face from the others. She didn't need to actually see his face to know how pleased he was with himself, though, and such a knowledge infuriated her all the more because of it. Yukito looking back briefly with an apologetic smile, sadly, did little to appease her.

As they all turned to leave the plaza, they took a look around one last time at all the damage that had been caused. This would likely create a veritable ruckus among the town citizens, let alone what the media would make of it, but they all knew that there was nothing to be done about it. They also wanted to be out of the area before anyone was able to return to the region that had apparently been sealed off by the power of the spirit that they had just fought. Guilt weighed upon them heavily, but they soon left it behind them as they made their way for home.

They started off down the nearest street, making back for the road that would lead them to the park and playground. Reios slowed his pace as they walked, doing his best to avoid the back-and-forth struggle that was still coursing between Sakura and her brother, while matching his step with Syaoran and Tomoyo. He leaned in close to them to ask, "Do they do that often?"

"That? That's normal. They're siblings," Syaoran replied gruffly, his mood growing darker now that Touya was pestering his Sakura, though it could also be said that his mood was faltering out of mere principle, simply due to her elder brother's unwanted presence. He didn't need very much to become annoyed with the older member of the Kinomoto family.

It was not the detailed response that Reios had been hoping for, but with Syaoran looking like he was getting ready to launch into an all-out offensive, he decided to leave it at that. He would have liked to push the issue, but the only other person that looked like she would be useful on the subject was gleefully wearing her all-knowing smile again. The same, irritating one that he found just plain impossible to read. He locked the thought into his mind to ask his question again at a later date, and with that, he fell back further still to line up alongside the walking Sorcerer's Encyclopedia.

His first question to Eriol was, "Now, how about explaining how... Yukito, is it? About how Yukito here is able to change himself into some kind of superhuman angel?" he asked, changing his language to avoid any chance of insult or eavesdropping, "I'm guessing that he went and changed himself back while I was out cold?"

"He did, yes. As for that angel, _his _name is Yue, and he is the true owner of their shared body. He, too, like most everything around us, is related to Clow Reed..."

Reios sighed in disbelief and shook his head, unable to believe that a single man – one that had been long since dead, no less – was having such a profound impact upon their lives. He therefore listened in intently as Eriol explained, in as much detail as he could, about the life of Clow Reed. From the point of Clow's birth and all the way up to Sakura's succession of his power, and of the entire process of events that had resulted from his works of magic and the Clow Cards, Eriol left nothing to the imagination.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*= =*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

_End, Chapter 3_


	27. The Dream, Revised III

**Chapter 4 – Sea of Nightmares  


* * *

  
**

_4-1: The Dream, Revised III_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream. The same dream that she had had before, made of eternal darkness, of new books and new magic, and of an ever-present sense of fear. And yet that fear no longer wavered her resolve, as it had done several times in the past. This time, she had stepped into the dream of her own free will, with her resolve intact and directed. A dire sense of purpose took a hold of her as she marched her way forth through the infinite darkness, her wand held tightly within her grasp.

Tonight, aided as she now was by the powers of the sun and the moon, she would protect that little bird. She would stop the darkness from claiming that bird for itself over and over again, and in so doing she would stop the dream from turning into a nightmare. She had to make sure that the dream would have a happy ending.

Just like that, she slowed her pace, stuttering in her steps until she came to a complete stop. She immediately knew that something was amiss. The light of those three books, the representations of herself and her two allies, should have made themselves known to her by now. It was from them that she was to summon up the powers of the sun, the moon, and the stars to her aid. She would need that power if she was to stand strong against the swirling vortex that would soon appear to devour everything. So why was it that were they not here with her when she needed them the most?

Instead of an answer, she was met only with the continuation of the dream. The little bird that she so desired to protect was now fluttering about her as though it were without worry or care, completing circle after circle around her as it happily chirped and bounced itself about for her enjoyment. Except that she was _not _enjoying it, for she was deathly afraid of what would happen if the little bird were to remain with her any longer. She had to do something, anything, and fast.

In a panic, she tried to scare it away from her by swinging her Star Wand in its direction. Cruel as it was to even imitate trying to injure the poor creature, it was better than the coming alternative. And yet, her swings and pot shots at the bird did absolutely nothing to deter its path of flight around her. If anything, she could have sworn that one of her swings actually went clean _through_ the bird's body, and all to no effect.

From that point on, she knew that she had failed. Not wanting to stay and watch the little bird get sucked into oblivion once again, she simply turned tail and ran as hard as she could towards the edge of the dream.

As she broke through the boundary of this dream and back into one that would be of her own mind's creation, she dwelt on the fact that she had been left alone. With no one to help her, she had failed to stand up to the darkness on her own. Without the power of her allies, she had failed to save the little bird from it's fate. Even Clow Reed's voice, which in the past had always followed her escape from these dreams, was vacant from her thoughts this night. But in the end, all it really managed to do was boil down to only one thing: she had been unable to bring the dream towards her happy ending.

Because she had been all alone.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	28. Prelude to Adventure

_4-2: Prelude to Adventure_

A small, chartered shuttle-bus idled its way into the small clearing of trees, stopping just short of allowing its passengers to see through the edge of the treeline on the far side of the gravel-covered clearing and into what lay beyond. The female driver, outfitted with sunglasses and a sharp, three-piece suit, pushed the handle beside her to open the door. Through it her passengers finally depart for their weekend getaway.

"We'll see you at four o'clock, tomorrow afternoon, then. Thank you for your help today," Tomoyo told her bodyguard-turned-driver, receiving back an affirming nod as she hefted her stuffed schoolbag and stepped onto the ground below the shuttle's door step. As the last to depart, Tomoyo was forced to pick up her pace in order to catch up with the rest of the group.

As she approached the rear side of the procession, she noted on how well Reios was managing to work his way into the circle of friends that she and Sakura had enjoyed for pretty much the last six years. Already he had befriended Naoko to a strong degree, for the two had not stopped talking about all manner of novels and stories ever since they had left the city. Only now, after departing from the bus, were the two _just_ deciding to take a break from it all. Both Naoko and Tomoyo now found themselves idly listening in on him talking to Takashi about differing tactics for beating some kind of video game. It was surprising, as Tomoyo hadn't figured Reios to be a bookworm type of person, to say nothing of being a video gamer, but there it was.

"Amazing!" Sakura called out from the front, breaking into a slow jog so as to more quickly close the gap on their destination. Everyone else followed her lead, rounding the corner of a thick patch of trees to follow along a small, sloping dirt path. At the far end of the path that was walled off on both sides by smoothed rock, stretching for nearly a full a kilometer down to their right, was set a relatively isolated ocean-side beach, hidden away from the world behind them by a thick stretch of trees set onto the ridge line of rock walls that spanned the entire length. A grove of yet more trees was set upon a taller rocky rise, down at the far end of their portion of the pristine-white stretch of sand, fencing off the area from the rest of the east-facing coastline. To their left, serving in the same manner as that far-off grove, rose a daunting cliff face about fifteen or twenty meters in height. Another plot of trees could be seen covering the cliff's plateau above them.

As for the beach itself, it had already been dotted with various signs of civilization, all likely due to the efforts of the Daidouji family employees. Straight ahead of them was planted a wide volleyball net, come complete with neighboring picnic tables pitched into the sand for holding any drinks or other belongings. Then, down the beach a ways sat three separate cabins set up along the cliff-risen treeline. Tomoyo made to point out that hiding behind those cabins, buried a small ways into the trees, was a shaded, open-air gazebo that held a pair of picnic tables. Perfect for any sudden rainstorms.

They had all been to beaches and various other getaways before, at one time or another in their lives, but today represented the first time that they would all be on their own for such an excursion. With only themselves to rely on, and with the peace and serenity in their new and isolated world blocking away their former lives for only a single, fleeting weekend, the excitement that hung in the air was quite tangible. To them, their new and diminutive world seemed like a true paradise.

Reios walked up to the front of the line, standing alongside Sakura and Syaoran as they themselves gazed across the beach before them. He stretched slightly, reaching back to adjust the staff attached to the rear of his belt, and commented, "This is quite the piece of land your family acquired, Tomoyo. I appreciate you inviting me here." Those behind him quickly sounded their equal appreciation.

"Well, it has been a long while since the eight of us have been able to all get together at the same time. It also seemed like a good opportunity to introduce a new friend," Tomoyo added before setting off into the white sand before them, "And what better an opportunity than a camp-out at a private beach?"

The group started to follow her, their direction leading them towards the group of cabins that sat further down the beach. Meanwhile, Syaoran hefted one of the three larger duffel bags that the males of the group were carrying (with Takashi and Eriol being required to share the burden on the heaviest one), and fell into step with Reios. With a pointing nod of his head, he indicated the staff that was strapped to the foreigner's belt, and in a low voice, he asked, "Do you ever take that thing off?"

Reios raised an eyebrow to the query, then looked out into the ocean thoughtfully, "Asking me to set this aside would be like asking the seas to give up their salt. It was a part of the oath I took, that this sword never leave my side when not necessary. My teacher was a bit of an eccentric, you see."

Syaoran merely shrugged in reply, since in the end he could say nothing against the man. He knew full well that he held the same attitude with his own weapon, even as he dug his left hand into his pocket – the one where his sword charm lay in wait – without even realizing it. But at least his own wasn't something that was so obvious.

When all was said and done, with their belongings organized and beds arranged, two of the three cabins had been taken. They were split between the two genders, of course. The third cabin, which was considerably smaller than the others, thus made itself useful in the way of equipment storage. As he was setting his own bags away within that third cabin, Syaoran noted with a slight interest that Reios had decided to put aside his staff-like katana for the time being, and was tucking it into an undisturbed corner of the cabin. When questioned, Reios replied with a rather contradictory statement, "What point is there for a weapon if no danger is present? Besides, it'll just get in the way of our volleyball game."

As Reios departed the cabin with an overly-anxious Takashi (who had supposedly already picked a side of the volleyball net for his team, not to mention the team itself), Syaoran removed from his own schoolbag a fist-sized, blue velvet, two-piece box. The edges of the box's lid were set with a glittering, silver lining. He stared at it for the longest time, knowing full well of what it symbolized. He knew full well what it would, in the end, do to the rest of his life, and his decision to finally bring it into the light of the world had been a long and agonizing time in coming. He had even been indecisive about it, almost, as he had worried severely for the longest time about having to do this, but it was too late for second thoughts now. Having heard that they were coming to an oceanfront beach, he had come up with the idea to bring it along and make use of the opportunity that such a locale could potentially offer. The opportunity that would be afforded to him at just before–

"What is it?"

Syaoran's heart nearly exploded from his chest, the shock of suddenly hearing Sakura's voice scaring him witless. He spun about on her, doing his best to hide the box behind him, "Err, just checking to make sure I, uh... didn't forget the, err... sunscreen! Yeah!"

He feared that his nervous reaction would give him away, what with Sakura's concerned expression about his sudden outburst suggesting that she was suspecting something to be wrong. Normally, she would have believed his excuse, smiled warmly for him, and left it well enough alone, so he must really have looked out of sorts just then for her to be wondering about him. If she were to ask him about what he was really doing, Syaoran knew that he wouldn't be able to lie to her. His whole plan would be ruined, and he wasn't sure if it would work properly if his plan didn't go _exactly_ as he needed it to. He _needed_ his plan to work properly, or else... or else the consequences could end up being too great for him to bear. His mind began to spin wildly, looking for any way that he could possibly use to get out of this mess before she attempted to say anything. Though with the scare that she had given him, he had a hard enough time just focusing on not outright panicking.

Fortunately, any possible questions for him were interrupted by a familiar, red-headed girl as Rika popped her head around the doorway, "Sakura, have you found the ball yet?"

"Oh, right!" she exclaimed, darting past a frozen-stiff Syaoran to where Tomoyo's portion of their belongings had been stationed. She dug through them for a moment before pulling out a white volleyball from the large duffel bag, then darted back to the door to hand it to Rika, who in turn left the cabin to bring it to the others. Before Sakura herself left, she turned back to Syaoran, "Come on, my team needs a fourth player, since Tomoyo's going to be recording the game. This is going to be fun!"

And before he could react to the sudden spike in his good luck, she was gone, and for a long, breathless moment, he just stood there. He was overjoyed like nothing else that he had been able to keep his secret, but his overwhelming relief at that same result kept him from being able to express it as such. He turned his back to the door and eyed the blue box in his hands once again. A confident grin crept onto his face as he placed the box into a darkened corner of the room, a place where it was unlikely that anyone would see it. He couldn't afford for it to be discovered, not until the proper time presented itself. He had been praying to the spirits of his family for that time to come ever since Tomoyo had invited him to this weekend getaway.

His name being called from outside the cabin finally brought him out of his personal thoughts. Grabbing the bottle of sunscreen out from his schoolbag, he made his way to the volleyball net that was near the cliff.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

It had been an early lunch by Syaoran's watch, reading at just a little under an hour before noon when they had seated themselves into the shaded gazebo behind the cabins. It was a good meal, regardless, with everyone partaking of some of the best sandwiches and prepared sushi they had had to date. All provided by Tomoyo and Rika, respectively, so such results came as no surprise to any of them, really. The two had noted that it was their way of making up for missing Sakura's birthday gathering. Regardless of the reason, however, it was apparent to everyone that they had put some of their best effort into the work, as the food all disappeared from the multiple carrying baskets well within five minutes of starting.

Syaoran downed the last of his sandwich – a rather flavorful tuna sandwich at that – with a shot of the orange juice that had also been provided, before speaking, "Thank you for the meal, it was great. You two really outdid yourselves."

Rika shook her head slightly, "Not really. To be honest, I asked my father to help with my half since I wanted to spend some time with him before he headed back overseas. Tomoyo's sandwiches, though, really were wonderful. And she did the work all on her own too!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if Tomoyo was capable of making anything!" Sakura added. Such commenting was prone to forcing out a slight blush of embarrassment from the topic of interest.

"Ah ah! Before you go saying that it wasn't that big of a deal," Reios put in, cutting off Tomoyo's attempt at a denying reply with a slightly roguish grin , "they're right. These sandwiches were amazingly good. It all was."

"And this beach is really cool, too!" Chiharu chimed in, "I'm surprised that your mother was able to find one so isolated, and especially in such a wonderful location."

Naoko bobbed her head enthusiastically, "Yeah, this nearby shade is nice, and the sand is really soft and white! Any whiter and it could probably pass off for snow!"

"That reminds me," Takashi took up, "about the story of how the first beaches were made."

Chiharu's eyebrow twitched, but it went unnoticed while Takashi continued, "A long time ago, beaches in Japan and the surrounding islands nearby didn't even exist, and were instead long fields of grass and washed-up sea weed along the entire length of the island's shorelines. Then one day, a traveling group of aliens found this planet, and decided to terra-form some of the landscape. It's said that using their spaceships, they transported massive quantities of sand from areas such as Africa or Egypt, and covered the entire coastline in sand. And not just here in Japan either – they supposedly went and created brand new beaches all over the world."

Eriol, who had remained relatively quiet up until that point, jumped into the story, "That's right, and it was all for the sole purpose of preventing homesickness. For, you see, most aliens that visited our Earth came from planets that had scenery much like the beaches we have today."

Takashi took over again, "In fact, there is supporting evidence that these alien worlds are all made up of oceans and beaches and nothing else. Evidence all in the form of pictures taken from telescopes both in orbit and on the ground. Unfortunately, they're all being suppressed by our world's governments in order to keep the knowledge of extraterrestrial existence down to a minimum."

"It is also interesting to note," Eriol put in, "that a small number of spaceships that the aliens had come in were also shown to have the power to temporarily alter a planet's orbit without affecting its ecosystems or gravity. This allowed them to witness an everlasting sunrise or sunset, depending on the coastline that they were currently inhabiting. In some locations, when the sands met up with the crimson-colored waters, it would seem like one were afloat in the middle of a giant ocean. The rays of the morning or evening sun would throw the entire landscape into a beautiful red glow."

"Wow, aliens could do that?" Sakura asked incredulously, "I hope I get up in time tomorrow to see it!"

Reios, on the other hand, was staring back and forth between the two flatly, "You're kidding me, right?"

Chiharu, who was sitting at the far end of the table with Rika and Naoko, and subsequently was out of reach of the two story-tellers, muttered openly to herself, "It's been almost four years since those two have seen each other, and yet they manage to throw in some crazy tall tale on their very first day back together. And without so much as a pause, even."

Rika leaned in closer to Chiharu, "Maybe they've been practicing through letters or e-mail?" Chiharu could only shake her head despondently.

Instead of also contemplating such potential methods of practice, Naoko rather forged ahead with their day plans, "So, what should we do next? I think that maybe we should find a place to camp out for the night. The weather forecast said that it would be clear skies straight up into Monday, and it would be a shame if we wasted all that time indoors."

Sakura was the first to jump onto the idea, "That sound's great! Are there any clearings nearby we can set up in for the night?"

Tomoyo worked her thoughts for a moment, trying to remember what her mother had told her of the nearby landscape, "I think that Mother had mentioned something about a clearing on top of the plateau. It supposedly has a full view of the night stars through the small grove of trees that are on top of it. To get to it, though, you have to go through a cave that's about a quarter of a kilometer further up the coastline, but its only accessible during a low tide."

"Well, it just so happens to be low tide now," Eriol noted, "and the waters shouldn't climb too much higher until well into the night. Do you have a mapping of the caverns?"

To everyone's regret, she shook her head, "No, I am afraid not. Mother has yet to have those caverns explored, and only knew about the plateau through aerial photographs and third-party accounts."

Reios grinned at the thought of an adventure, "Well, that sounds like we get to do some exploring then."

They were all in agreement, and within a half an hour they had collected all the supplies that they would need for a night of camping in the out of doors. But as they gathered everything at the base of the cliff, they soon realized that it would be too much for them to carry every single thing through unexplored caverns. Even if all of them were to take a portion of the load, it would still end up being too much for some of them. And as yet, they had not even collected any firewood for making a campfire to sit around.

Which was when Tomoyo pointed out a stretch of metal jutting out of the cliff's edge high above them, positioned just before the water's reach, "See that there? I think that's some kind of pulley. Maybe whomever owned this beach from before had it placed there to move stuff up more easily?"

Takashi crossed his arms in thought, "Maybe, if we sent a scouting party through to the plateau, and sent with them enough rope to pull everything to the top, we could avoid having to carry everything. It would also be safer if we only sent in a few people, anyway, in case something happens and we need to call for help. And then we wouldn't _all _have to go, since the rest of us could just get hauled up after all the camping gear."

Syaoran looked around to each of them, "Yeah, there's a good idea. But then, do we _have_ any rope?"

It immediately dawned upon everyone that the events for the weekend hadn't called for any use of rope, and their hearts began to sink with the realization that it wasn't going to work out. A flash of pink broke onto the scene, however, as Tomoyo pulled a small cell phone from her pocket in an attempt to resolve the situation, "I could call our driver, who is stationed at a nearby town, and tell her to bring in the supplies we'll need to haul everything to the top. A one-hundred-foot length of rope and some kind of basin for carrying stuff would probably do it. She could buy those for us and probably be able to arrive here in the time it would take the scouting group to find their way, if they go now. We could turn the rope into a kind of grappling hook to get it up to the plateau, after that."

With their minds set back at ease, Eriol brought forth the biggest question, "All right, then that leaves who will be sent up through the caves. Personally, I'd like to remain behind and assist with whatever chores are left."

"I'll remain behind, too," Takashi said, "I can be of more use helping to gather up all the supplies that we'll need."

"Well, we know for sure that Tomoyo should be the one to lead the exploration group," Chiharu noted, "After all, it's her family's beach. Not only that, but they say that the first person to discover a new territory has the rights to naming it!"

Of course, with Tomoyo decided as the leader for the scouting party, it was easy to tell that Sakura was going to be nominated as a participant in the exploration. And what was an exploration team without some form of protection and physical assistance? With this in mind, it wasn't long before Syaoran, Reios, Sakura, and Tomoyo all stood at the shoreline before the cliff's edge, bidding farewell to those who were to remain behind.

"You four be careful," Rika demanded, "and make sure to call us if there are any problems."

"I'll keep this with me at all times," Takashi told them, noting Sakura's own copy of the pink-colored cell phone in his hand, "so keep in touch."

"We will," Tomoyo said simply, then turned to her traveling group, "Ready?"

Three nods replied to her, and with that they walked to and around the corner of the cliff while picking their way carefully along the various, washed-up and smoothed-over rocks embedded into the sand. A small ways up the coastline, just as Tomoyo had told them there would be, sat a small opening in the rock face. It was just about twice as tall as any of them, though just barely wide enough to support two of them shoulder to shoulder. Approaching the opening, glances into it revealed nothing beyond the pitch black of darkness that laid deep within it.

Sakura turned momentarily to stare out into the ocean, and she suddenly found herself wondering at how far out she would be able to see from the plateau, as opposed to her limited vantage point here at sea level. The thought of looking out across an endless field of water excited her greatly, to say the least. For that reason alone, she felt that the faster that they found their way through these caverns, the better.

Clicking on the flashlight held within her left hand, Sakura took point for the four-person exploration team. Stepping her way carefully along the damp and slippery rock ground, they began their journey into the dark caverns ahead.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	29. Isolation

_4-3: Isolation_

It had only been a half an hour since the scouting party had left to scour the insides of the caverns, yet already those that had chosen to remain outside had already finished their chores. The bulk of the work had been to find a source of firewood for an evening campfire, but that issue was quickly solved when Naoko managed to sight a hidden stash of wood within the shaded grove behind the trio of cabins. Now the supplies were only required to be hauled to the top of the plateau, and sat neatly in a pile beneath the old pulley to await such a fate – and for their driver to arrive with the hauling materials that they had requested. Other than that, all that was left was for them to do was to kill some time until Tomoyo's group managed to find their way to the top.

"Well, while we're waiting for both the driver and our scouting party, how about a game or two of something?" Eriol asked, standing up from the volleyball net's picnic table to return to the cabins, "I brought along my Go set."

"I'd love to watch you and Yamazaki have a round together," Chiharu said, "but I'm afraid that I don't know how to play Go, myself." Naoko and Rika also noted their lack of knowledge in the game.

"Well, that's fine, we can just teach you three," Takashi offered, "The basics are actually quite simple."

"I'll be back in a moment, then," Eriol told them with a grin, and started off for the cabins. He didn't even manage to get three steps away when he abruptly stopped dead in his tracks. Something didn't feel right.

"Hey, look. The waters are starting to get really choppy."

He turned to Naoko's voice, then to the ocean, and found his instincts to be confirmed. He noted that the waters really were starting to become considerably rough, and yet he couldn't see or sense any storms that might have been lingering over the horizon. Nor could he sense any underground vibrations nearby that could have caused a form of underwater earthquake. When placed together with his bad premonition from just a few seconds ago, this evidence allowed him to come up with only one conclusion.

The corrupted wave of dark energy that swept its way through the area soon confirmed his theory. One of the elemental spirits was at work, and immediately he was scolding himself for not having realized it sooner. He should have known better than to allow themselves to be caught within range of a near limitless source of water. That would have been his excuse, at least, except that he was having a slight problem with that one thought: he was _supposed_ to know better. So why had he allowed everyone to be placed near such an inviting trap? Worse yet, why had he chosen to stay behind, instead of going off with the expedition? Why was he being so careless all of the sudden?

"Maybe there's some kind of storm over the horizon?" Rika asked, stretching up on her toes slightly as if to actually try and see over that horizon. Eriol muttered to himself that this wasn't the work of an ordinary storm, but against the light crashing of the waves against the shoreline, his words went unheeded.

There was only one thing that Eriol could do. He had to get into that cave, before the "storm waters" sealed it off, and make contact the others before the disaster that was approaching them did so in his stead. As much as he didn't want to leave those currently with him unprotected, things would be far worse for them all if he ended up getting cut off from Sakura and the others. They wouldn't be able to do much against this foe if they ended up being separated indefinitely.

"Everyone, get to somewhere safe. I'm going to go and try to warn the others," Eriol shouted out against the growing violence of the ocean waters, and darted off up the coastline before anyone even realized that he had spoken. Already the waves were rushing up further and further against the sands, making his journey difficult as he worked against the irregular surges of the enraged ocean in his attempt to get near the towering cliff face. But if he could just get around the corner of that cliff and get out of visual range of his peers, he would then be able to use his magic to more safely traverse the coastline.

He was off towards his duty before Takashi, let alone anyone else, could even think to object to his apparently rash actions, and was out of sight by the time any of them had thought to actually act. They all silently questioned his sanity, just then, though they also knew that there was nothing to be done about it anyway. Tomoyo's group needed to be warned of the impending dangers that this unseen storm would eventually bring, and this much was certain. That Eriol was probably the best swimmer out of all of them, Sakura aside, also left him as the best choice to attempt it.

There was also the more immediate worry that the waves, ever increasing in size and volatility, would cause considerable damage to the pile of the supplies that they had gathered, and possibly even wash some of them away. But by the time that they had thought of this, the waves had already begun to strike against the sands of the beach in a frightfully dangerous fashion. As much as they wanted to worry about recovering their belongings, at the moment they had to worry more about themselves.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

"...and that's when Meiling broke the penguin right in half. With her bare hands! And _then _she went and smashed up the dozen or so more that just kept flying right towards us. There were chunks of cement scattered everywhere when she was done!"

"Her bare hands, huh?" Reios muttered, staring at his own fists, "I don't think I could do that. Syaoran, your cousin must be an amazing fighter."

"Yeah, I guess," Syaoran merely shrugged to the fact, as he was not sure that he wanted to reveal too much about his prior relationship with Meiling.

"Oh yeah!" Sakura added in, "Then, there was this one time, just before she–"

All sound and motion stopped in lieu of the dark wave that washed its way over the region, reaching towards them even as deep into the rock as they were. Tomoyo, who by now had a sense of her own for guessing when things were going wrong, instantly went on edge, "What wrong? Is it...?"

A soft grating sound from behind her verified her fears, when Reios drew his katana from its place at his side, "We're in a bad spot for this."

Like the others, Sakura could sense the dark presence of the corrupted spirit, but she was unable to discern any current threat. As such, she turned to Syaoran, "Let's just keep going for now. If we can find the exit to the plateau before the spirit makes its move, we'll be better off, defensively. According to Eriol's estimates, we should be able to find the our way out with another half-hour of wandering."

He nodded to her suggestion, "Moving will be a lot better than staying in a tight spot like this, at any rate. Let's go"

Sakura turned ahead and immediately set off further into the passage, only to stop again when her first footstep sounded off with a soft splash, as opposed to the normal thump of rubber sole hitting rock. She pointed her flashlight towards the ground, staring at it wonderingly. Why would there suddenly be water, when the ground had been relatively dry just moments before? Her thoughts were lead away from such questions, though, with Reios's low growling sounding out from behind them. He had turned himself about, and was staring into the caverns back the way they had come from.

"What the hell is that noise?" he asked testily.

The three of them listened in carefully for whatever it was that had caught Reios's attention, yet none of them could hear anything except for the rhythmic sighs of their own breathing and the occasional sloshing of water against rock.

Syaoran asked quietly, "What noise? I don't hear anything."

Reios's mood grew darker for every moment that passed, "What do you mean you 'don't hear anything'? That roaring noise coming... in... from... run, _NOW!_"

Syaoran finally caught wind of what was putting Reios on edge just as the man made the order to run. He grabbed at Tomoyo and Sakura's arms, forcing them both into a full-out sprint as they all made a mad rush to escape from the roar of the surging waters behind them. They couldn't see it yet, but they could now literally hear the caverns being violently filled with a massive onslaught of raging seawater. The deafening rage of their opponent, and it was just about to bear right down on top of them.

The small passage that they were in opened up into a slightly wider cavern about five meters in diameter, with another passage exiting out of it that was set up above them about three meters off of the ground. Syaoran wall-jumped himself up onto the raised ledge first, and lifted Tomoyo and then Sakura up while Reios acted as a stepping ladder for them. With a final glance back behind them into the fast-flooding tunnel (he could now see the rushing waters barreling down upon them through the faint reflection of the flashlight), Reios launched himself up as well, struggling to pull himself up all the way before the waters could strike. Syaoran reached down and desperately heaved on one of Reios's arms, hauling him over the edge and onto higher ground just as the invading water slammed loudly into the ledge below them.

They now believed themselves as safe, even if it was only for the moment. With the new tunnel ahead of them looking like it was forming into a rising slope, it would be easy to outrun the flow of water into the cavern. That was if its high point even went beyond the ledge that they had just climbed, anyway.

Or at least, they tried to believe this. Then their comfort in safety was quickly broken when the waters chasing them actually began to climb up to, and then over the ledge. The water's lapping tongue continued to creep ever closer towards them, and at an alarming rate. Much faster than any of them would have expected it to. It was like the entire region was sinking down towards the bottom of the ocean.

Sakura, realizing that they wouldn't be able to outrun the water's increasing rise at that pace indefinitely, swiftly countered their predicament with, "Freeze!"

A wall of ice built itself up over the entrance to their tunnel as soon as the words escaped her lips, the visage of the frozen avatar reflecting within the ice and waters before confining itself to its card form once again. Before long, the darkened caves behind the wall of ice were completely covered away by murky seawater, with the waves sloshing and battering against the immobile and hopefully impenetrable blockade of its own element. Tensions remained high as the four waited to see if the ice would hold, but after a long few moments of watching and anticipating the inevitable, they all released anxious breaths only to realize that they were all mostly _out _of breath from their unanticipated race. Sakura, veteran athlete though she was, half-collapsed herself into a sitting position against a nearby wall, as a result.

"With such a... close proximity to a major source of water..." Syaoran muttered openly in between his puffs for air, though it was noted more to himself than anything, "Damn, I should have seen this coming."

Reios put away his sword and leaned up onto the rock wall beside the seated Sakura, and spoke out once he had managed to revive his own lungs, "Don't be too hard on yourself. None of us could have known that the spirits would have followed us this far. And, at any rate, that little rush will have shaved at least ten minutes off of our journey. The ground is also starting to slope upwards, too. According to Eriol's divination of the area, that must mean that we're getting close."

Sakura picked herself up off the floor and turned off towards the darkness ahead and above them, "Let's keep going then. If we're getting close to the plateau, then I want to get there before the spirit tries to do anything else. I also want to make sure that Eriol and the others are all okay."

She received no arguments to that idea, and so the group regathered their senses and continued their journey into the caverns. After another ten-or-so minutes or so of twists, turns, silence, and a lot of sloped climbing, their path eventually leveled off. At least, up until they came to a fork in their road. Their options changed to either continuing straight ahead on their current, leveled path, or taking the turn-off which sloped upwards and, seemingly, towards their goal.

"Wait, which way do we go?" Sakura asked, "Eriol said that we should keep heading in the same direction, but this turn-off looks like it heads upwards towards the top."

"Personally, I'd go with the directions given by the one with the supposedly near-omniscient mind," Reios suggested, taking a step down into the tunnel with the rising slope to try and peer through the darkness.

Nodding to the idea, Sakura took the lead once again. Pointing her flashlight off towards their initial direction, she noted, "You have a point, there. Eriol wouldn't give us bad direct_waaaah_!"

Syaoran tried to make a diving save, but it wasn't nearly fast enough. Slipping upon an unseen patch of damp moss, Sakura tumbled hard backwards to land on her back with an audible thud, and with the surprise of suddenly losing her balance, the flashlight she carried left her grip in tandem with her fall. It flew far off into the distance back the way that they had just come. Their sudden plunge into darkness was emphasized by the shattering of plastic and glass against the rocky floor. For those that yet remained standing, they weren't sure as to what was the worse sound: Sakura's loud and probably painful impact against the ground, or the distantly loud crack coming from their now-extinguished light source.

The darkness around them lasted for barely a moment, waiting only for Syaoran to bring new light to them in the form of an elemental flame. Securing the flame to its incantation charm, he flicked the yellow paper onto the ground and, after ensuring that she had taken on no serious physical injuries, helped Sakura up into a sitting position.

Groan as she might against the tightening throb from her backside, the flickering of the flame in front of her still managed to grab her attention, and thus everyone else's. A cool breeze brushed across Sakura's face in time with the dancing movements of that flame, suggesting to all of them of what lie ahead.

"A breeze causing the flame to flicker," Tomoyo mentioned, putting into words what everyone else wanted to say and believe, "The exit to the plateau must not be far from here."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Let's not waste any more time, then," Syaoran suggested, though he turned to Sakura before doing anything else, "Can you walk?"

"It was just a bad fall. I'll be fine," she replied, forcefully pushing herself back up onto her feet to prove it. The sudden rush of blood to the impacted areas of her lower back and shoulders made the pain she would feel the next morning immediately apparent, causing her to wince slightly despite herself, "I think."

"We'll take it easy, for now," Syaoran told them, picking up his summoned flame as he passed by it. He waited until Sakura had lined up in place beside him, took her hand to ensure that she would not slip and fall again, and then proceeded down the tunnel for himself. They continued to follow the feel of a fresh, seaside breeze as they passed numerous other forks in the road.

An ominous premonition soon after crept over them, much to the point that even Tomoyo felt that something terribly wrong was about to happen. They were nearing the plateau, surely, but the spirit had yet to try and attack them again. It was almost as though it were overdue for such an attempt. Such feelings of suspicion and apprehension only served to sour the mood, making the four spelunkers all the more fearful and anxious for it. Tomoyo couldn't help but notice that Sakura's old phobia of ghosts had even went and revived itself slightly, finding her to be jumping at even the slightest of sounds behind them. It was all Syaoran could do to keep her from outright panicking. She also noted that Reios seemed to grow more tense each time Sakura had a panic attack.

Such rising tensions only served to scare him witless when a strong gust of wind, riddled with the powerful stench of corruption, blasted through the tunnel. Their source of light being wiped from existence by that wind did not serve to make things any better.

"Hey, what's going on?" Reios asked, his voice almost an inaudible murmur against the dead of the silence that had lingered on after the wind. And within that silence, not a single sound could be heard, least of all the reply that he was expecting. He shot forward a few paces, hoping to at least bump into Tomoyo or Sakura, both of whom had been right in front of him. Perhaps they had just been suddenly frightened into silence?

After several steps, however, he ran into nothing except for the cold embrace of rock as he blindly angled off into the cavern wall. Rubbing the left side of his face against the dull throbbing of pain, he called out into the darkness, "Syaoran? Sakura! Tomoyo! ...HEY!!" Even though he received a reply through the form of his own voice sharply echoing back to him, he soon became quite aware that he had been isolated from the rest of the group.

His reactions to the situation around him finally registered, his sharp and shallow breathing marking his rising fear. He forced his courage to the forefront, calming his mind to try and reason through what had just happened. He then had to try and figure out what he could do about it. First, he knew that they were currently being pursued by one of the elemental spirits. That they had been initially attacked by an onrush of water would suggest that the spirit was of that same element. Second, he had been separated from his friends by either some work of magic or by everyone having scattered in a fear-induced panic, and he had been submerged into an absolute darkness alongside. This meant that one of them would have to try and find the others, and he sure as hell wasn't going to sit still and play the bait.

With this in mind, he brainstormed for what he could possibly do to help alter the situation to his favor. His fear-laced resolve wasn't helping in the thinking process, though, and it was only wearing thinner and thinner for each minute that passed by without him coming up with anything useful. He soon found himself wishing that Eriol had gone with them, that perhaps the English sorcerer and his vastly superior intellect would have been able to shed some light on the situation. He grinned at his own pun, wishing at the same time that it could have been in the literal sense, until he realized that he had a pack of magical beings in his right pocket, and that a few of them possessed the power to grant such a wish.

The sound of steel escaping its confines filled the pitch-black air as Reios reacted instinctively to a sudden sound in the distance behind him, his katana redrawn and his cards forgotten. He turned himself to face the origin of the sound as best he could, though within this abysmal darkness it was hard to tell whether he was facing open air or a wall of rock. Closing his eyes, as useless as they were without a light to go by, he instead concentrated only his hearing out into the region around him. He hoped to catch more of what had initially made that sound, yet for the longest time afterwards he heard nothing except for the rasping of his own shallow breathing. Such actions and findings only served to make him feel less aware of his surroundings, as opposed to more, and in turn frayed his nerves far beyond their already wracked state.

The wind gusted softly from back in the original direction that he had been heading, whistling across the opening of a nearby turn-off. That eerie calling of ghosts and goblins spun him about again, his heart and mind racing ever faster to meet up with any potential threat of ambush before it was on top of him. His eyes darted about as he attempted to see through the impenetrable darkness and towards the deadly threats that laid beyond, even though his common sense told him that it was useless.

A thin splash of water, again behind him. He raised his katana up to head level as he spun back about, preparing to charge into the darkness now ahead of him. He was completely certain of himself that the flesh and blood of the spirit that was purposefully tormenting him now lay in wait. All other thought was set aside, as he could afford no other thoughts to impede upon his fragile focus. His only wish now was to defeat the spirit that was challenging him, torturing him. He took a step forward.

"Reios?"

A brutal roar, mixed with the emotions of both rage and fear, rang painfully loud throughout the caverns as he spun about upon his attacker. He brought to bear the weight of his entire body, adding it to the inertia built up within his swing. Utterly and equally blinded by both fury and darkness, he swung hard, struck true, felt the satisfaction of steel contacting flesh, and knew that he had defeated his tormentor. He relished in the sound of a dead weight impacting against the cold ground below. And when his eyes finally focused onto the target of his attacks, their bodies lifeless and unmoving upon the ground, his normally overbearing willpower was shattered like so much fallen glass.

Upon the ground before him, both of them laying motionless and with their mouths agape from the silent screams of anguish and death, laid two of his newest friends. Sakura and Tomoyo, their eyes terror-filled and glazed over, seemed to want to stare at him and convey the fear and confusion that had shot through their minds during their last moments, yet instead they were forced to look straight above into the infinite darkness beyond, never again to see daylight. There was no struggle for survival, nor any lingering effects of pain or suffering. They were just... gone.

And although he had originally chosen not to believe in it, it had come true. Just like the dream had shown him, it had come true.

He was now truly alone.

Their fallen bodies were accompanied by his fallen sword as it escaped from his grasp. Time was brought to an agonizing crawl as the edged steel spun itself away from his hand and towards the hardened earth below, but he didn't care anymore. What else could possibly matter now? He had taken away the lives of the innocent. The lives of those he thought he had held dear, and yet now their purposes only served to stain his hands, his sword, and his very soul. The same hands, sword, and soul over which he had sworn that he would never take the life of another. The sword that he had oath-sworn to become the balance against death was now a _bringer _of death.

The piercing ring of the katana's silvery steel striking rock dropped him to his knees, his hands stretching out in supplication as if to beg for mercy. His mind was still unable to grasp the concept of what he had just done. An absolution of silence took its hold upon him, just as the darkness had done only minutes ago, even as his fallen sword settled into its new home away from his murderous hands. The silence grew ever more louder, ever more unbearable, until its piercing cry was more louder than the ringing of metal striking rock could ever be. It even grew to become more painful than the feeling of the lives that now haunted his every waking moment.

Waking moments that he would have to suffer alone.

Once again he cried out, a feral roar of loathing and hate, fear and agony, but this time his brutal cry was not accompanied by the desire for battle. Instead, it carried with it the crushing burden of consequence.

"And here you fall, having yourself killed the very ones you were sworn to protect. Painful, is it not, to lose everything that you have ever coveted? Would you, perhaps, like to see them again?"

From the female voice's chilling words came a hidden power, and from that power appeared a mirage within the darkness. From that mirage, from the smoke-and-mirrors visage that wavered and flickered into being in front of him, came the image of the two friends that he had just struck down. Images, he was sure, since he could see into the magic that had weaved them, and he could see the two fear-marked bodies still laying below them. And yet seeing those two bright and smiling faces, even after the knowledge that they were supposed to be dead, was too much. It was as if the souls of those two girls were now mocking him, further impressing upon him his mountain-weighted guilt.

"Give your life up to me, now that you no longer deserve it. Let me end the pain for you. You'll be able to see them again, if you do."

His mind was well beyond recovery, by this point, so much so that he all but failed to acknowledge the fact that he was being goaded. Often in his youth, he had considered himself as legally insane, though by that account alone he knew himself to be merely a child at heart. It had only been a playful term to help make sense of the oddities within his life. Yet now, with his spirit broken by the unforgivable task his hands had just performed, he was no longer certain of his own mental well-being. Had he ever truly been in control? Had he always been just a suppressed psychotic killer waiting to happen? Had he lost his real self to the pain... or had he found it?

The two illusions vanished without a trace, only to be replaced by a shadowed-over creature floating before him. His heart lurched at having lost them again, even as his mind laughed gleefully that the mocking brightness in their smiles had departed. But his body heeded neither of these internal events, and in response to the presence of a real entity, it mindlessly began to rise to its feet.

"Will you allow me the pleasure of ending you now? Or shall we dance with death and make this all the more interesting?"

Though his mind never fully registered all the words, his eyes and ears still saw and heard all of what he needed to know. He stood slowly, unstable in both body and thought, and faced his now-revealed adversary. The blue-skinned, mermaid-like spirit that floated before him, surrounded as it was within a second skin of clear, glistening water, would serve well to quench his blood-thirsty hands. Not that any amount of even the most holiest of waters would ever be able to wash away his sins, but this demon's life blood would be as good a start as any.

Unconsciously taking up the fallen katana to his left hand, in his right he pulled into the open the silver key. He summoned the sword of darkness through the force of his emotions alone, invoking no incantation or spell-form. His eyes, wide with the anticipation of battle and thick with the fog of insanity, locked hard onto the demon's liquid-encased form even as he followed it devoutly through the darkness of these wretched caverns. He was certain of his target, this time, and his gaze was unwilling to let it go, because now...

Now, he was no longer alone.

And as the demon drew him slowly away from blindness and towards the tree-filled plateau, so too did it draw out of him what was now his singular, most deepest desire.

A blood lust. The lust for vengeance.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	30. Emerald Nightmare

_4-4: Emerald Nightmare_

Sakura's first reaction was one of concern, rather than fear, for she was immediately aware that any form of human existence around her had been magically removed from the vicinity. She didn't need her mind's eye to tell her that she had been left alone with whatever dark power it was that had extinguished the elemental flame that Syaoran had carried, as Syaoran's hand spontaneously disappearing from her grasp was easily proof enough of that. Thoughts of ghosts and vengeful spirits attacking and abducting the easily-preyed-upon living swiftly filled her thoughts, though she did her best to force such things out from her mind before they could paralyze her with fright. Still, it didn't stop her from calling out their names.

She shouted out into the tunnels, "Tomoyo? Reios! Syaoran!! Is anyone there!?" yet the echoes of her cries bounced back at her multiple times, and none of them were accompanied by the familiar voices that she wanted to hear.

She closed her eyes and threw her senses into the emptiness around her, hoping to pick up on whatever powers that would make themselves known to her. She sought for the familiar feel of Syaoran's flame, and for the brilliance of Reios's light. She sought out for Eriol and the enigma within him that was Clow Reed's magic, which she knew should not have been too far away. She even attempted to sense out Tomoyo's non-magical presence, just as her brother – what with his former ability to sense _any_ life sign around him, even with his eyes closed – had taught her. Yet not any of these, and not even the spirit's corrupted presence, could be felt anywhere within her reach.

Having nothing around her to work with, she instead decided to make the best of what she had. Removing a card from the small carrying pack strapped around her waist, she called upon the Light's power. Immediately the area around her was illuminated in the soft glow of Light, and Sakura soon found herself wondering why she hadn't thought of this sooner. Her magic was immensely more useful than a simple flashlight could ever be, because now she could see for as far as her eyes would let her.

Without being able to sense the presence of any persons nearby, she surmised that her first task should be to find the exit to the plateau and recruit Eriol's help. That is, if he was even still outside waiting for them, instead of having disappeared like everyone else. Regardless of either result being true, it would be safer for her to escape from here, compared to wandering around these caverns all alone. She wanted very much to go and find her three friends, but she also knew how dangerous it would be if she were to chance across the spirit while she was on her own. Reorienting herself, she continued onwards along their original path down the tunnel, following the gentle breeze ahead of her whenever it could think to make itself available.

While passing one of the various turn-off points from the main tunnel, she swore that she could have heard footsteps running towards her. She turned back to that turn-off and pointed her card down the passage, hoping to sight a familiar face that she could match the sounds to. As luck would have it, she spotted Syaoran heading towards her at a high-paced jog. Overjoyed at no longer being alone, Sakura rushed headlong towards him, practically jumping into his arms as they met up mid-way.

"Syaoran! Are you okay?" she questioned worriedly, latching onto him tightly, "When I couldn't sense anyone around me, I was afraid that you'd all...!"

He smiled at her reassuringly, even though she couldn't see it, "Yeah, I'm fine, which means the others probably are, too. What about you though? Any injuries?"

Sakura shook her head against his shoulder, still refusing to let go, "I'll be fine. I was just a little afraid, that's all."

Then she had an idea. With Syaoran by her side, now they could go and search for the others! It would be a lot safer for her to travel together with someone, rather than taking on the risk all by herself. The dangers would be manageable, now. Besides, if Syaoran was now here, then that meant that Eriol was likely still in the area, and _that _meant that the others were too. And even though she was realizing this a bit late, she also knew that Eriol would have noticed the evil wave that had shot through the region just as well as she had, and would be fast on his way to assisting them. They could probably meet up with each other and formulate a plan to counter their foe.

Releasing him from her embrace, she then voiced as much, "But with your help, I'm sure that we can find the others. Come on, let's go back and look for them!"

She turned to run back down the tunnel the way that she had come, anxious to get started before anything else could happen, but was held back by a steadfast grip upon her arm. She looked back with a confused expression, noting Syaoran's vice-like hand holding her back, and then his demanding eyes glaring down at her. He spoke out soon after releasing her, "No, don't go rushing into trouble. Rather, our first step should be to get to the plateau and warn the others that are on the beach. Besides, Eriol will likely be on his way here, by now. There's no way he would have missed that presence shooting over us. He can find the others and bring them along with him easily enough, which will leave us free to get out of harm's way all the sooner."

Something about the way that he had placed those words seemed to nag at Sakura, but pressing forward in her own case was more important, "But what if they're injured, or what if the spirit is already attacking them? I know Reios could probably hold his own, but even then he'll still need our help! And then there's Tomoyo, who wouldn't be able to do anything at all if it went after her. We have to try and find them!"

Again she attempted to sprint off ahead of him, but again he held her back with an unrelenting hand clamped to her wrist. He wasn't taking "yes" for an answer, it seemed. She spun back about on him pleadingly to beg him to reconsider, and all but choked on her words at the sight of his still-demanding gaze. His stare was all but ordering her to drop the issue.

"I'm sure that they'll be fine," he insisted, "There's no use in searching for them, even if they are still here. Not only can I not sense anyone, but I also can't sense any form of danger or foreboding. Wherever they are, they'll be safe enough. It's us I'm more worried about, since you'll be the main target for any kind of attack."

"I don't care! I won't leave them alone in here! " she cried out against him, surprised at herself that she could raise her voice against him like that, but it made her realize something: she was starting to grow annoyed with him. Why was he being so stubbornly adamant about this? They were his friends, too! What was he thinking, saying 'there's no use in searching'!? He should have been just as desperate to help them as she was!

The hardness in his eyes held fast against her desperation, making Sakura apprehensive towards his intent. She tried to further convince him, "What if... what if there _is_ something in here? Something that we can't sense? You once said it yourself, you know! If something is powerful enough, it can completely hide its presence from us. Maybe it's hiding everyone else from us, too! No, I'm sure of it, we have to find them! You have to help me find them, please!"

"Hmph. Okay, I see how this is now," Syaoran shot back, a heavy tone of accusation building into his voice, "You care for their lives more than you do for ours, is that it? Or maybe it's just one specific person that means more to you. More so than me, perhaps? Did my love for you mean so little that you would toss it away for the sake of another? Were all those letters and phone calls just one big façade? Or maybe you had just grown tired of our 'long-distance' relationship, and decided that I was no longer worth the wait?"

She stood there wide-eyed and speechless, unable to comprehend anything of what had just transpired. His words were making absolutely no sense to her whatsoever, suddenly lashing out at her as they were with their constant barrage of hurtful and pointless questions. How could he say all of that with such a straight face, and without any form of provocation or reasoning, no less? She wanted to reply to those words, she truly did, but the anxiety and despondency that had started to wash its way through her would not let her speak, for she was too shocked by his unwarranted change in tone and heart to form up any kind of rebuttal.

When the courage to speak finally did manage to surface, she ended up having to force out the words with everything that she had in order to make herself heard, and even then they came out as pathetically weak and hesitant, "Th-that... that isn't true, I..."

Syaoran just outright ignored her, and continued on with his rampage, "Is your judgement towards our safety so clouded that you would risk _everything_ just to rescue a few simple lives? Especially when you've only just met one of them! Why should we take that chance, when we could instead escape for ourselves and then safely come up with a better plan?"

Her tolerance for Syaoran's lack of understanding, at that moment, broke, "Because I care _equally_ for each of my friends! You, of all people, should know that!"

Syaoran huffed indignantly, turning his back on her, "Yeah, sure. It's more likely that you forgot about me the moment I left for Hong Kong, and now you just want to use me to get back to the more important people! I should have known better than to trust in a long-distance relationship. So who is it that you replaced me for, then? Your new friend, Reios? Maybe even Eriol, perhaps? He always did have an eye for you."

If Sakura had been just panicking before, now she was becoming completely hysterical. She shook her head fiercely, "You don't mean that!"

"Oh, I don't?" Syaoran retorted flatly, and without turning back towards her, "You're the one that has been lying to me about our relationship for all this time! Admit it already! You love someone else, and I'm just getting in the way! I'm right, aren't I!?"

His harsh tone and cruel accusations were one step away from shattering her heart, even though they had already half-blinded her with tears. She wanted to get him to see, to let him know of how she felt. She had to make him believe once again that her love for him was real. It was impossible to believe in the first place that he could even think up such lies about her, let alone put words to them. How could Syaoran, her beloved and warm-hearted Syaoran, be able to so easily jump to such conclusions?

She cried out as loudly as her voice would allow, "That's not true! I love you more than anyone, and you know that!!"

He whipped about on her heatedly, his eyes glaring into her with an unnatural fire within them. And though the volume of his voice was moderated when he spoke back to her, the ever-increasing hatred within it was not, "If that were the case, then you wouldn't hesitate to come with me!"

Had that gaze upon her been any stronger, she was certain that she would have felt actual waves of heat coming from him. As it was, she could only turn away from that gaze unwillingly, horrified something fierce to see him standing against her with such unchecked and directed hostility. It was all she could do just to keep herself here, instead of fleeing away as her mind was demanding of her, to escape and hide into the welcoming embrace of the darkness-filled caverns.

"No, please..." she whimpered, fearfully re-closing the distance between her and him in slow and agonizingly small steps, "don't be like this..."

She reached out a quivering hand pleadingly, hoping to reach out to him, to pull him in and hold him close. Or better yet, that he would accept her back, take her into his arms, and assure her that everything would work out. She wanted so badly to dispel the fear and hatred that was overwhelming the two of them, to show him that her love was not just the passing fancy that he claimed it to be. Instead, she received only a disgruntled huff and a rough hand to knock away her own. He turned away from her in disgust, his eyes closing away from her in tandem with his heart until all she could see was his backside once again, and with that act she feared that she had lost him completely. She squeezed her own eyes shut in turn, vainly trying to block away the tears that had long since been running freely.

She knew that these were tears she would never, ever, be able to stop.

_Do not fear it! Fight!_

What...?

She shook her head slowly and brought up a hand to clean away her blurred vision, finally unwilling to believe any of the words that had been spoken here before her. Her feet still wanted to lead her away, yes, to make her run and hide so that she would give herself in to the despondency that was enveloping her. And yet her heart, fragile as it now was, would not let her turn a blind eye to this nightmare. It, like herself, sincerely refused to believe that everything had been lost. It had placed too much of itself into the person standing before it to just give up like that so easily. It, like herself, loved that person unconditionally... even now, after all that had been said.

Indeed, she had been in love with him since probably before the start of her fifth grade school year, though for the longest time she had remained blissfully unaware of herself. It had taken an unexpected declaration from him, built from massive amounts of courage and a desperate sense of timing, to make her eventually realize it all. It was something that she had been unable to act upon for at _least _another year afterwards, and it was this fact that embarrassed her the most. But after that, once the day had come that they had accepted each other openly and fully, she had begun to treasure each and every moment of that bond with him all the more. Even during the times when being apart from him had hurt her the most, she had waited dutifully for her love to come back.

Much akin to an attempt at suicide, to simply run away from these cherished feelings now would surely be an unforgivable sin.

But she knew that, ultimately, she just couldn't bear to be left alone. She didn't want to experience that dream again. The dream of being left alone, and of being completely incapable of fighting for those she loved. For all the magic and ability that had been granted to her over her young life, on her own, she was powerless. On her own, she had no one to draw her energy and strength from. On her own, she could not protect anyone. On her own, she had no one to care for. Without Syaoran to love her and be loved by her, she was... on her own.

"This isn't happening," she finally muttered, her wavering voice beginning to betray the strength and resolve hiding behind the flowing tears that _still_ threatened to choke away her words, "This... can't... this isn't real. You... this isn't how you're supposed to be! Not you. You would never... do this to... to... you just.... you can't be the Syaoran that I know and love..."

"What I can't be is devoted to you anymore," he muttered nonchalantly, as he walked away from her and into the darkness of the caverns beyond, "so go away."

No...

"_You are not my Syaoran!!_"

In the instant that the scream of agony left her heart, the world around her was wiped away into nothingness, though not before she caught sight of a sinister grin forming onto his lips. Drowning within the blackness that had originally enveloped her, she faded away...

And in that darkness, a light found her. Within that light, she found and followed the path back into consciousness. She soon found herself awakening to Eriol's gentle and understanding smile hovering over her, his left arm cradling her upheld shoulders supportively.

The floodgates of emotion unleashed themselves within her, making the horrible feelings of before seem as mere trifles by comparison. They caused Sakura to bury her face into the shirt of the dark-haired friend kneeling down beside her. She continuously wiped away the tears that would just not stop, while clinging to him all the more tightly to assure herself that she was no longer alone, all the while being thankful like never before for whatever miracle it was that had awakened her from that nightmare.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	31. Amber Nightmare

_4-5: Amber Nightmare_

Syaoran's initial reaction was one of annoyance, finding himself to be cursing silently at the flame in his hands being extinguished by the magicks dwelling around him. Within the split second duration that the vile-scented wind had blasted by him, he had felt an overwhelming strength blanket his own, shutting away the portion of his power that had kept alight his elemental flame. Such a strength also seemed content to merely just be toying with him, as its lock upon his spirit had released mere moments after he had felt its weighty presence. He sighed audibly and pulled another leaf of paper from within his thin spring jacket, lighting up a new guiding flame in the process.

"It's playing games with us. Let's pick up the pace before it... tries anything... else?"

His words crawled to a stop as he soon realized that he was alone, with the fire's small radius of light revealing no visible signs of life anywhere around him. It was only at this point that he noticed that Sakura's hand had abruptly vanished from his grasp, a realization that easily threw him into a small panic. That her disappearance had completely escaped his notice spoke volumes as to the predicament that he now found himself in. This was obviously the work of the spirit that was stalking them. It was a means to break their resolve against further resistance, by separating them and limiting their ability to hinder its efforts. Such methods of demoralization would not work on him, however, and he purposefully brought himself back under control to prove just that.

His first thought was that if this was a water elemental spirit, then this meant that it had a small portion of influence in the ways of illusion. A smoke and mirrors kind of deal, since water had the ability to reflect images. This, in turn, could mean that those with him were actually still with him, just that perhaps he could not see them. To test his theory, he stretched his arms out in both directions, leaving only a single hand-span of distance between either wall of the tunnel. As such, he retraced his path several paces backwards, attempting to collide into anything that had been magically concealed from his gaze. When he ran into no detectable obstacles after a good fifteen seconds of pacing, his arms fell back to his sides in failure. But he refused to accept defeat, and his mind was already attempting to come up with more potential scenarios.

Except that the only other reasoning he could come up with, for the moment, was that his friends had continued on without him. How they would have managed to pass him by without his notice was beyond his reasoning, though, since he had been the one in the lead when all of this had started. At an increased pace to his previous speed, he made his way on down the tunnel and towards where the fresh air had originally been leading him.

Within a minute of a high-paced jogging, he became aware that the cool breeze from before had stopped its tracking through the caverns. Yet even without the winds to pull the fresh air through, the climate and atmosphere around him should have been taking on a more temperate feel, as opposed to the salty chill of the air that was _still _pervading this sun-deprived darkness. Even the passage that he was currently traversing was now showing signs of repeating itself, for certain formations of rock along the walls were causing varying bouts of déjà vu, not to mention that he had yet to come across any more intersections long the way. Nothing anywhere around him along this impossibly long tunnel was any different whatsoever from what it had been from even two minutes ago, which made him stop to think.

He pulled out a third leaf of paper, again an incantation to summon elemental flame. Throwing it ahead of him with a wide sweep of his arm, he sent it shooting off into the darkness beyond his handheld light. The paper immediately burst into flame even as it continued onwards much as an arrow would: straight and unerring into the tunnel beyond. It didn't take very long at all for Syaoran to realize that something was not right about his surroundings, a fact which was increasingly supported as his flame continued to sail unhindered along its flight path. After a while of watching and waiting, the flame winked out of existence completely, its light becoming far too distant to be seen by normal human vision.

This suggested to him that the entire area was under some kind of illusion-like enchantment, possibly to keep him lost or occupied while the spirit dealt with his companions. After all, he wasn't one of the three that had been chosen by Clow. Thus, the spirit would likely want to keep those unrelated to the battle secreted away in order to prevent any form of interference, since that was what had foiled its brethren in the past. And what better a hiding place than in an infinite stretch of cavern? This in itself would have been acceptable, since he was secure enough in his confidence of Sakura and the others to win out against their supposed adversary. His only problem with it all was that Tomoyo should have been sent here along with him, if that were the case. Nothing about any of it was making sense, despite the obvious truths that he had so far managed to uncover.

Syaoran leaned up against the cavern wall, trying to make himself comfortable for what could potentially be a long wait. He didn't need to wear himself out any further now that he knew that his escape was impossible. When he had settled into his spot, however, his peripheral vision caught onto the first difference in his environment since he had been separated from the others. His feet ran ahead of his mind, and soon he found himself within a small circular room within the cavern, with another exit leaving the room at his point-of-view's three o'clock position. There was also a faint light coming from that new passage.

Another step into the widened cavern allowed him to catch wind of even more signs of life. He approached carefully, not wanting to surprise whomever might be near, nor wanting to reveal his position too early. Moving within earshot of whomever or whatever was there (he could now detect enough life signs to indicate two entities), he recognized one of the sounds as Sakura's voice. His heart leapt with anticipation at having found her, finally. But when a question was posed by another voice – which, he noted, belonged to Reios – his heart nearly stopped.

"So it's been a long-distance relationship ever since?"

As Syaoran back-stepped to hide alongside the cavern wall just before the tunnel opening, Sakura's voice replied to the question, "Yeah. At first, I didn't really care. I had found my true love, and I wanted to believe that it was all that would ever matter to me. But then, as time went on, I realized that it was difficult to love someone that was never around to be loved. For the longest time I kept telling myself that he would come back, even when it really, really hurt to not have him around, and that I would be justified in my want to keep him in my heart. "

"Okay, so now he's back. I don't see the problem here."

Sakura sighed faintly at Reios's comment, pausing for a moment to probably gather her thoughts. This provided Syaoran with a moment of reflection for himself. Had he truly been gone for so long? Had all of the feelings that they had expressed to each other – in each letter, in each phone call – been faked merely to prevent hurting his feelings? Each other's feelings? He slapped himself inwardly for giving in to such sudden doubt. Surely there was a justifiable excuse for Sakura to be saying such things? In the end, she still had a good reason to be tired of having waited for him for so long. Four years would be a long time for pretty much anyone. But he was back, and he was back to stay. Wasn't that all that mattered now?

Sakura's voice came up again, "The problem isn't that he's back. If anything, I'm happy that he's returned. But..."

"But?"

More hesitation ensued before Sakura continued, "It's what he did recently that really bothers me. Just today, you see, when I was getting the volleyball for our game, I found him sitting alone in the storage cabin, looking at something in his bag. When I asked him what it was, he... I'm pretty sure he tried to hide it from me. I didn't really think about it, at first. I guess I was too enthralled in wanting to be with everyone again. But now that I've had some time to reason through it, though, I'm not so sure anymore. It's as if..." she trailed off, her voice stalling for an eternally long moment before finishing the sentence, "It's as if he wanted to get rid of me, like I was in the way."

Syaoran's elevated spirits at having found her were falling fast for each sentence that Sakura uttered. His every fear was starting to come true. Everything he didn't want to accept was forming up into a cold and bitter reality. Was it really his Sakura that was saying all of this?

"Maybe he had a good reason, though?"

Another moment passed, another eternity to Syaoran, before Sakura replied back to Reios's query, "No, I don't think he would hide anything from me. Or at least, I didn't want to think that at the time. After all, we were supposed to be in love with one another. We both had fought so hard to admit that to each other. Him more than me, I suppose. I didn't think that there would be _anything_ we would want to hide from each other, after all that we had been through."

Syaoran's knees buckled under the stress of his heavy heart, his back scraping against the rocky wall as he sat hard onto the ground. He wanted to cover his ears and just stop listening to the conversation that he was hearing, at that point, yet something within him just wouldn't allow him to shut her away. To shut her voice away and ignore its hurtful words completely... he couldn't.

Then Reios asked the very question that Syaoran had been dreading, "So, then, does this mean... that you're going to call it off?"

Despite his prior insecurities, Syaoran wanted to jump up and scream at them right then and there. He wanted to confess his true feelings before both subject and witness in a final testament to his truest emotions. He wanted to run right up to Sakura and reassure her that everything he had ever said to her, everything he had ever wanted for her, was real. Instead, his legs acted like mere deadweights, weights that were equal in comparison to the lump in his chest that had once been his proverbial heart. Remaining in tune with his prior insecurities, he could only sit there in silence and desolation as he awaited the answer that he knew would be coming.

"It will hurt for a while... No, it's going to hurt for a _very_ long time, for the both of us," she said at first, and then drove it home, "but... I think it would be for the best."

The longest silence yet played itself out, which was eventually followed by Reios's voice, "I'm sorry to hear that, honestly. If there's anything I can do to help you through this, let me know. I know that Tomoyo and Eriol will be more than glad to help, too."

Completely contrary to her supposed mood, Sakura happily giggled slightly. Syaoran could then hear shuffling sounds coming from around the corner as the two conversationalists probably were both making an effort to stand up off of the ground. Once they were standing, Sakura's voice remarked, "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind. Now, shall we keep going? We have to go and find everyone before we can try and come up with a way to escape this labyrinth. I just... I just hope that I don't break down when I see Syaoran again."

"If you do, I'll be there. My vow of protection extends beyond just physical bounds, you know."

As if the pain of those words hadn't been enough for him, Syaoran could have sworn that he had heard a small pecking sound after that. He could only imagine at what it meant, though one scenario stuck rather vividly into his mind.

"Thanks, that means a lot to me," Sakura said, and rather cheerfully at that, considering her somber attitude from just a minute ago, "Come on, let's go!"

Their running footsteps echoed off into the tunnel that they had occupied, leaving Syaoran alone within his small, roomy cavern. Yet for as much as he desperately wanted to, he couldn't chase after them. His heart and mind were just too fully entrenched under the crushing weight of the sadness that now threatened to tear his soul apart. Everything that he had worked for over the years that he had known her had come tumbling down to be swallowed by the dark abyss of obliteration within the span of mere minutes. From a bitter and heated rivalry, to a world of clouded judgment, to days spent in turmoil over unspoken feelings. He had always believed that, one day, he would find what he wanted. Then, on that morning at the clock tower, he had watched as his desires – _their _desires – were completely fulfilled.

There was no other person that he could love, and he knew it. Without those emerald eyes to seek the light of life through, what use did his own life have? Without that ever-present smile accompanied by the unquenchable, lighthearted spirit that she always held within her, where would he find his own happiness?

All of the planning and plotting that he had committed into this one, single weekend... was it all now just a pointless, empty wish?

_Do not fear it! Fight!_

What was... a voice?

And then a memory came to him, unbidden and unwanted, and yet it was forced to the very front of his mind all the same. A memory of departure, and of how everything had been risked so that she could take that one last chance at admittance. Of how he had never said a word, and yet they had both known what was in each other's hearts. He had given away a symbol of his soul on the day that he had left her, something that he knew she still cherished even now.

Another memory, this one of tears upon an early morning before dawn. A sacrifice, as her light broke free of its bonds and shattered the cage that was preparing to tear his mind to pieces. A confession made out of the last remaining shreds of hope, seeking to pierce through the powers of change before everything was lost forever. Droplets of water falling from desperate eyes high above the city streets, with her fearing that everything within him had been destroyed. She had given up a portion of her power on that morning, all so that he would not forget.

From his cold place upon the ground, he felt a warmth stirring within his dead chest. A semblance of life returned to his vacant eyes. He soon realized that he didn't believe a single word of what he had just overheard. All of those days he had lived through alone, wishing for peace within his heart, could not have been in vain. They couldn't have been. He would not allow them to be. His own feelings were true, whether anyone else believed in them or not, and even if he had to endure the entirety of those memories all over again, he would make her see the truth of his soul.

The fact of it was, he _knew_ that she felt the same way. He _knew_ that such feelings were equally reciprocated. She had risked revealing the secret of her magic by flying to the airport as he made his leave of her, as her first attempt to bring forth her feelings. She had given her all to avenge the destruction of her family and friends, her town, and himself. She had indeed sacrificed some of her power – one of her very own cards, in fact – in an attempt to save him from the cruel fate that awaited him by the hands of the Card of Nothing. She had _cried_ for him, openly and freely, when she was brought to believe that all her efforts had been pointless, and that his memories of her had been washed away, to be lost forever.

Such were the memories that constantly replayed themselves in his mind over and over again, and again, and again, and again, solidifying his disbelief in all of what he had just heard. And now it was his turn to cry for her. He wanted nothing more than to be near her, to reassure both her and himself that everything would be all right, and that he would never leave her again. He wept openly with the overwhelming desire to make this new wish come true.

A flash of thought within his mind brought forth a picture of representation: a winged heart. His heart.

Standing to his feet, he walked defiantly into that tunnel that he had avoided, and proceeded along it blindly, leaving his elemental flame behind. He growled to himself, "I will not give up on her so easily. I will never leave her."

With what little light that remained from the flame behind him, he watched uncaring as the world around him was wiped away, drowning him within the blackness that had originally enveloped him...

And in that darkness, a light found him. Within that light, he found and followed the path back into consciousness. He soon found himself awakening to the sight of Eriol's welcoming hand as the sorcerer moved to pull him up off of the ground, a gesture that Syaoran readily took to.

To his right, Syaoran heard the gentle sobs of a familiar voice, its owner sitting against a nearby rock wall while hugging at her knees tightly. He immediately rushed himself to her side, though the sobs only grew worse as he wrapped his arm about her.

In response to his sorely wanted affections, she leaned her quivering self into his warmth gladly.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	32. Amethyst Nightmare

_4-6: Amethyst Nightmare_

Tomoyo's initial reaction was one of fright, with doings unimaginable happening all around her. With her eyesight having been taken from her, and her companions having become deathly silent in the fear-filled panic that had likely followed, she felt herself growing ill at ease about what would surely be coming next. She knew better than to lose control, though, and most especially at a time like this. Desperately holding back her fears, she instead called out to Syaoran, who was in the lead, "What happened? Why did the flame go out?"

When she received no reply to either of her questions, her panic only returned two-fold. She was alone.

Once again she had to force herself to remain calm. There was no use getting worked up about a situation that was out of her control. Logic dictated that, at best, she had merely been separated from her friends in a possible panic after the flame had vanished. At worst, they had been whisked away to somewhere only God would know of to fight against the spirit that was likely confronting them. Both situations, however, left her – the powerless one – on her own.

Her best bet for now would be for her to sit it out and either wait for their return, or for Eriol to come and find them. With the spirit now having revealed itself, and if he hadn't been taken away just like her companions had, it wouldn't be long before he came to investigate. With this in mind, she felt around cautiously for a relatively flat portion of the cavern wall, pulled a thick kerchief from her pocket, and placed it down where she could sit and quietly wait for rescue.

As time passed by at lengths unknown to her, somewhere along the way she remembered that she had brought along a miniature flashlight. She was quickly admonishing herself for not having remembered about it sooner, as she pulled it out of her pocket and flicked the switch. Even though she was more cold than anything, with the air being damp and salty from the nearby ocean waters, the light would still provide a welcome relief to her lack of sight.

More time passed, and she found herself standing. Her legs had grown tired of their constant lack of use. She began to wonder if anyone had even started looking for her yet. Or perhaps that something had happened to them, and that certain something was preventing them from their search in the first place. Neither of those two thoughts was a very pleasant expectation for her, so she forced herself to believe that help would be on the way sooner or later. She had no choice but to believe in that scenario, really, since not believing that help was on the way could only serve to worsen her current state of mind.

Scanning around with her flashlight for the kerchief, Tomoyo made to settle back onto the ground again. She then bolted back up to her feet when she heard someone scream out in the distance, which was immediately followed by the sounds of a struggle. Her heart stopped as the sounds reached her ears, because she knew who that scream belonged to.

Sakura.

She sprinted off towards the source of the commotion, using the continuing sounds of battle as her guide. She heard the crashing of steel striking against rock, which meant that either Reios or Syaoran was with Sakura, and _that_ meant that all was not lost just yet. Never slowing, she turned sharply into a side passage, the one where the crashing sounds of water and steel against rock were becoming more and more apparent.

Another turn, and she found herself suddenly half-blinded by a soft yellow light glowing from the corner of the room-like cavern that she had entered. Within that room, she also found both Syaoran and Sakura standing defensively with their weapons at the ready, the two doing their utmost to defend against a formless blob of floating water. That blob was continuously shooting out strings and arms of water tentacles to beat the both of them into submission, which the two were just barely managing to fend off. Tomoyo made sure to stand herself well away from the fight.

A quick scan of the situation showed that things were not going very well at all. Sakura looked like she was heavily favoring her left foot, an injury that was the most likely cause of the scream that had sent Tomoyo rushing towards this point. Syaoran, meanwhile, looked completely battered and ragged. Varying parts of his clothing were torn, with several cuts and scrapes that could be seen along his visible patches of skin. One cut, along his left upper arm, looked to be rather deep. It was bleeding profusely, and was turning the entire left side of his shirt a deep crimson red.

The water spirit – at least, Tomoyo assumed the formless attacker to be one of the spirits that they faced – paused in its assault momentarily, giving enough of an opening for the two human combatants to counterattack. Their calls for summoning brought forth their powers, sending a multitude of lightning lances shooting towards the spirit's ambiguous form. The sparks and crackles that flew about on contact were near to blinding, but when the light and electricity faded away, the water entity before them remained apparently uninjured.

"Try it again!" Syaoran ordered, and Sakura held up her Thunder card once more in compliance.

Then the spirit made a counterattack of its own, sending several arms of water flailing wildly towards Sakura. By the time anyone was able to react, she was already caught up within the binding grasp of the spirit's attack. It shook her violently as it slowly reeled her in towards the main body of the water blob, and in the process forced the Star Wand to come tumbling out of her hands, leaving Sakura with little recourse other than to struggle vainly against her captor. Syaoran, fighting against both the spirit and his own personal wounds, leapt directly into the path of the water-formed arm as it retracted itself back, a strong desperation overtaking him as he sought to sever the connection that held Sakura prisoner. With his sword held back behind him by his good arm, he swung fiercely forward in an uppercut-like attack, a clean and direct slice to sever the thick arm of water from its source.

The gap left by Syaoran's cut was refilled almost instantaneously, leaving his target no less injured than it had been since Tomoyo's arrival. It also left Sakura just as imprisoned as before, enticing Syaoran's anger to flare up even further. With his initial attack having failed, he dropped his sword in behind him again and charged recklessly at the main body itself, only to find himself being blasted back from his target not even three steps into his assault. His flying form much resembled how one would toss away a forgotten rag doll, as his half-conscious and bloodied body smacked audibly hard into the rocky wall opposite of the water spirit's side of the cavern. This finally prompted Tomoyo to rush into the scene. She had to bring Syaoran back to his senses before it was too late, though she could only pray that he was still in a decent enough condition to even fight.

Her fears were beginning to overwhelm her better judgement. Despite any potential injuries that he might have been harboring, Tomoyo shook the fallen swordsman roughly, "Syaoran, please, get up! You have to help her!"

Much to her relief, he did manage to reawaken. Gritting his teeth against the pain and focusing through the world that spun madly around him, he looked up at the monster that had just flung him aside. Yet even though Tomoyo had begged of him to rescue Sakura from her watery prison, something he shouldn't even need to be told to do anyway, there was something wrong in the way he was responding to her pleading words. Instead of the stout resolution and persistent strength that should have accompanied his mad rush back into the fray, there was only an undeniable confusion and incessant fear within the still-fallen warrior's eyes. He was hesitating.

With Syaoran frozen in place, Tomoyo turned back to the battle in which Sakura still struggled. The water entity had yet to do anything beyond what it had already accomplished, almost as though it were mocking them, and held the struggling girl about an arm's length away from itself. Fight and strain as she might against the grip of the forces holding her, it was obvious to the both of them that Sakura alone would not be able to free herself. And when their eyes met during a pause in Sakura's attempts at freedom, what Tomoyo saw within that emerald gaze implanted an unending dread into her: Sakura was deathly afraid. She was terrified of what was about to happen to her, and there was not a single thing that anyone could do about it. Except for Syaoran.

Again, Tomoyo turned to implore him, "Syaoran, please! Do something!" but her cries were only met with mere blank stares. She shook him once, twice, hoping perhaps to snap him out of whatever senseless hold that he was under. A third time. It all came to no effect.

Another scream from Sakura tore her eyes away from the paralyzed man near her, her gaze instead locking onto Sakura once again. Her eyes found her friend just in time to see that piercing scream get cut short, as the fist of water that had bound Sakura so tightly suddenly plunged itself back into the main body, taking Sakura with it. Within that spheroid of water, the remainder of Sakura's scream emitted itself as a silent mass of rising bubbles. Her mouth clamped shut as soon as she realized that she had been submerged, but it was too late. Already she was drowning, with most of her reserve air having been wasted in a cry of fear.

Tomoyo bolted up to her feet, feeling that she just had to do something, wanting to do anything to turn the situation to her favor. Even so, her eyes refused to let go of Sakura, unwilling to move away lest they lose sight of her forever. In her inability to turn away, her life was torn apart mentally as much as Sakura's life was surely being torn apart literally. Each silent scream of bubbles, each attempt to struggle, each twinge of suffocating pain and agony, they all pierced through Tomoyo's own heart and soul with an equivalent pain. She knew that there was nothing to be done but watch the life get sucked out of her dear friend, and that was the most painful thought of all.

She was helpless to fight.

It was as if the spirit had been waiting for that tormenting thought to surface. As soon as Tomoyo realized the full weight of her inability to act, it abruptly plunged itself into the ground and just dispersed with a massive splash of flying water. It left behind only a multitude of pools and puddles to cover the rock floor of the cavern before her, and not a single sign could be seen of the human existence it had held trapped within itself. Now uncaring for her own personal safety, Tomoyo dashed in towards where the spirit's form had once floated, looking for any indication of life, checking each puddle for... for anything that could prove that Sakura was still with them. But as each placement of water passed her by without revealing anything in her search, her heart sank further and further into its languid despondency.

Before long she simply just gave up her futile searching, returning swiftly to the still-paralyzed body that Syaoran inhabited. She shook him again to gain his attention, and after a few attempts, he finally turned his head to look at her, which gave her a minute feeling of relief. Yet the rest of her mind was filled with one part confusion and six parts apprehension, as she noted that the eyes looking back at her were filled with nothing more than cowardice.

Regardless, she pressed her case, "There must be something we can do! Isn't there anything!?"

"She's gone," Syaoran muttered back to her, as though never having even heard her. It was as if he was finally coming to this realization on his own, "She's gone, and there's nothing I can do about it."

His voice was weak and unsure, the perfect match for the resignation that Tomoyo could see forming in his eyes. Yet at the moment, Syaoran was the only one with any ability to counter this disaster, and she had to make him see that, "Yes, but we have to get her back! Please, bring her back to us!"

At last he seemed to hear her, with his eyes actively taking a focused notice to her, "But how can I defeat something that powerful if I wasn't able to do so in the first place, and with her by my side as well? On my own, I'm more useless now than I ever was."

"So you're just going to give up!?"

Syaoran looked away, seemingly disgusted with himself, even though he seemed to also accept such a self-observation, "What else is there to do? Sakura's gone, and I'm powerless to change anything."

A tear rolled away from Tomoyo's eye. She was unwilling to accept what she was hearing from him, "No, don't say that, please. You have to help her. You're the only one who can..."

He failed to respond to her this time, and instead picked up his sword from its resting place nearby where he laid half-propped against the wall he had crashed into. He stared at it blankly, his strength of spirit having disappeared alongside his resolve. At first, Tomoyo thought that he was perhaps giving some serious thought towards a decision to act, until a sudden outburst of emotional and audible anger then saw his sword flying across the cavern, clattering loudly as it impacted against the far wall and ground. The sudden clamoring of both raging cries and metallic ringing scared Tomoyo almost as much as she had been only minutes ago, forcing her to release yet more tears mixed with both fear and depression

She could finally see it within him, even against her own distress: Syaoran had completely abandoned all sense of hope. He wasn't going to try and save the day. No one was, and she herself certainly didn't have the ability to change anything.

"I was too weak. I've always been weak, and now she's gone because of it," he muttered.

And because of his self-imposed weakness, her own hope no longer had any foundation upon which to stand. It was useless to continue...

_Do not fear it! Fight!_

That voice... Eriol?

She stood up slowly, eventually backing away from the man that she thought she had once known. Her entire being refused to listen to the words that he was muttering, no longer wanting to believe in what she had just witnessed from him. They were all lies, set upon a baseless fear that she knew had no place in his heart. It was the only explanation that made sense. Tomoyo knew for a fact that Syaoran was the one person who would have been too stubborn to give up like that, especially when it concerned Sakura. Even during the direst of situations, when the outcome would have seemed bleak and hopeless, he would have fought with everything that he had to give if it meant helping her. Yet here he sat, moping to himself and giving up on Sakura., the very person that meant the world to him.

Tomoyo's hand raised up in front of her unbidden, which made her notice the tight, white-knuckled fist that it was making. In that instant, a feeling of complete surprise washed through her, overriding every other feeling that she had been harboring from the moment previous. From her actions, she realized that there was something building up within her. A dark and melancholic feeling that she couldn't ever recall having had before. It was something that didn't even deserve a place within her heart, and yet it now existed as an undeniable part of her. Unbridled fury.

The emotions of rage and hate finally made themselves known to her for the very first time in her life. She hated that what she had been forced to witness was likely the demise of the one person she cared about the most. She resented the fact that she was powerless to do anything about it, that her presence had had no effective impact whatsoever on the outcome of the battle. A fiery loathing also rose up from the depths of her heart, though the deepest of such a raging anger was reserved for a singular purpose: she despised Syaoran.

The one person who held the full ability to actually try and do something to set things right. The one person who had always placed the value of another life above his own, especially where friends and loved ones were concerned.

He was the one person who cared for Sakura as much as she did.

"No... this is not right," Tomoyo whispered, backing yet further away, "...you are not right. None of this is right. You... you would have died a hundred times over if it meant even the slightest chance of saving her. You would never have given up on her, not for any reason. No, this is all impossible. This isn't real."

Syaoran merely scoffed at her words, turning his head away along with a flick of his hand so as not to have to look at her.

That one, dismissive act was what pushed Tomoyo's newfound fury over the edge, "Who are you!?"

With that final questioning, Syaoran's head lifted back up to sight hers. His face was now contorted into a corrupted grin, a mix of pleasure and malice appearing at the forefront. That one sight filled Tomoyo with more dread than the entire time spent within these damned caves had ever given her. And as the world around her was wiped away, drowning her within the blackness that had originally enveloped her, she heard him speak out to her, except it was no longer Syaoran's voice. What she now heard was far more feminine than he could ever be capable of producing, and it called to her with a fluidic yet chilling voice that was thickly laced with a sinister intent.

"For one with no semblance of power whatsoever, you are very powerful indeed."

Those words followed her as the darkness finally overtook her...

And in that darkness, a light found her. Within that light, she found and followed the path back into consciousness. She soon found herself awakening to Eriol kindly assisting in her efforts to sit up off of the ground.

Her very first sight, upon regaining her full awareness, was a glimpse of light brown hair followed by those emerald irises that she so coveted, glistening and teary-eyed though they may have been. In the realization that all had been naught but a terrible dream, she wept openly with tears of joy and relief. She did nothing to hide her emotions away from those around her.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	33. Broken Oaths

_4-7a: Broken Oaths_

Sakura's own feelings of distress were immediately forgotten, in light of Tomoyo's choking sobs. She wasted no time in rushing to her best friend's side, "What's wrong!? Are you hurt anywhere?"

To hear that sweet voice worrying for her was too much for Tomoyo, resulting in her breaking out into an even stronger fit of crying, this time embracing her friend as tightly as she could and refusing to let go. Sakura, after a moment of surprise (she could not recall even one time in their lives that Tomoyo, of all people, had been the one in need of consolation), returned the gesture silently, allowing her friend the comfort that she apparently so desperately needed. Another surprise then overtook her when she found herself to be crying again as well, overwhelmed by the feelings of both the present and the recent past, though she managed to keep her own emotions quieted in contrast to before.

After a time unknown to them, when all the tears and sad feelings had washed away, Tomoyo finally separated herself from her dear friend, although she took a great care in not letting go of Sakura's hand. As such, she looked around to the familiar faces that were with her: Syaoran, who was kneeling beside where Sakura had previously been, his gentled eyes full of concern for their well-being. Tomoyo noted that her feelings of hatred towards him had disappeared along with her nightmare; Eriol, who was standing back to allow them some room, lighting the area with a glowing, card-shaped object. He wore that all-knowing smile upon his face, and it told her that he knew of her reasons for crying. It told her that he was glad that everything was all right now; and Sakura herself, a look of grave concern hiding behind the still-fresh tears on her face. That right there was almost enough to bring Tomoyo into a third bout of crying. Surrounded within the warmth of such friendship, she finally found the courage to stand up on her own two feet again.

Again, Sakura asked, "Are you all right? What happened?"

Tomoyo brushed away the drying trails of water on her cheeks before answering weakly, "I think I will be. It was... just a dream. At least, I keep telling myself that, but it was all so real. I can still remember every detail. Sakura, you... you were... fighting one of the spirits, but then it... and no one around me would do anything to help. There was nothing I could do to... I... I couldn't–"

Her words choked off again as she fought hard to contain another fit of tears that she knew that she had brought upon herself, screwing her eyes shut to prevent their escape. Now having heard of Tomoyo's inner turmoil for herself, Sakura gently pulled her friend into another warm embrace, giving away a quiet whisper to say that it was all over. She hushed that friend gently, telling her that there would be nothing more to fear. Tomoyo took great solace in the warmth of her touch and words.

"What you have all experienced," Eriol soon after began, once everyone had finally and fully calmed themselves, when it eventually felt right to speak again, "is something of a test by the spirit that now confronts us – one of the long-extinct merfolk, if memory serves me correctly. Although, this time, it was more meant as a distraction and a method of demoralization, rather than as any form of test. It is a nightmare spawned of the victim's greatest fears, and it is something that Clow Reed was also forced to go through. It is fortunate that I was able to get here and interrupt the spell in time. Though, in a way, I should have seen this coming. I apologize for not realizing it sooner."

"That would explain the stuff that I experienced," Syaoran put in, though he quickly edited his words to prevent revealing too much, "Everyone I was with acted completely different from how they were supposed to be. What I saw, I never want to see happen for real." As he spoke this, he stared intently at Sakura. She ultimately appreciated his words, somehow knowing they were meant for her and for her alone, though she couldn't really understand the why or how of it.

"But at any rate," Syaoran added, turning to Eriol to voice one of the first things that had come to his mind after awakening, "why are you completely soaked?"

And it was true, they all realized. Taking in a full examination of his being, they noted that Eriol's loose-fitting t-shirt and slacks were completely damp, and that there was a small pool of water building up underneath him. There was even water still dripping out of his normally neatly-tied-back pony-tail, which now had several stray strands of glossy blue-black hair sticking to varying parts of his neck and clothes, to say nothing of the multitude of shorter lengths of hair sticking to his face. In short, he was a veritable mess.

Eriol met the question with a slightly perturbed stare, "I just had to swim through flooded tunnels to reach all of you, _and _I had to break through that Freeze blockade while I was at it, but this isn't important at the moment. What _is_ important is that we continue on towards the plateau, now that you have all recovered. The way out is near, but we must make our way with all due haste. I fear that we are cutting it close."

Before they could depart, Sakura finally took notice of something that was missing from the picture around her, "Wait, where's Reios?"

"He is the reason we must hurry. Come, there is little time," Eriol replied even as he took off down the tunnel at as fast a walk as he could manage, leading the way with his glowing card. That walk was soon upgraded to a full jog, for up ahead of them was not only a source of natural light, but also the sounds of a heated battle.

Their approach led them to a man-made staircase carved right into the rock, leading upwards towards an arch-like opening in the cavern wall. A near-blinding light was pouring in from the mostly cleared evening skies beyond it, as their eyes were now used to the near-darkness of an underground life. At the same time as their vision came across this opening, a blasting stream of water shot across the opening's view, sending with it a familiar body flying across their range of sight. After seeing that, they wasted no time in rushing to the top of the flight.

Upon cresting the rise, Reios shot by the entrance again, this time under his own power and with both of his swords in play. Once out in the open and able to bear witness to his efforts, they watched in horror as Reios fought alone against a mermaid-like being which they knew could not be beaten by any one single person of their current day. The fighting was accented by the stormy skies that hovered away from them and above the distant horizon, with bolts of lightning occasionally flashing into focus. However, the thing that struck such horror into their minds was not the fact that he was on his own, or about the opponent that he faced. Rather, it was _how_ he was fighting his opponent that gave them all pause.

He spiraled and danced about the plateau as he swung at, and countered, the constant streams of whip-like protrusions of water that were stretching away from the mermaid's back and midsection, dual-wielding his swords in a chaotic frenzy as though demon-possessed. He was fighting frantically, giving it his all in a desperate effort to defy the odds. Barely dodging one whip in order to strike a decapitating blow, he took a vicious shot directly to his chest from a clawed hand. He missed his attack as a result, only to be forced to shoulder his way through the thrashings of the spirit's innumerable water-made whips as he fought to pierce its body clean through. He ignored several clean strikes to his left arm as his right-hand sword parried and then countered the assault.

He wasn't even bothering to properly defend himself. The dance held no concern whatsoever for his own life.

Another piercing lunge from his sword of darkness finally caused the spirit to disappear in a flash of vapor and water. Nothing was left behind from the heated face-off except for the blood-soaked warrior gone berserk. Sakura made to rush forward, wanting to see to Reios's safety, but was held back by Syaoran's firm grip on her arm. Fearing a repeat of her nightmare, she turned back to him desperately.

"Don't go near him just yet," he ordered, peering intensely at Reios's backside, "Something isn't right about this..."

Syaoran's voice was heard, and was responded to, though not by the person that he had been speaking to. Reios turned slowly to face the continuous illusions beckoned by the demon that he had been fighting. He no longer cared for their appearances or their words, for they were all tricks brought about by the demon's boasting. Created after the image of those he had betrayed, they were designed to throw him off track. They were meant to distract him into a defeat he would not be able to recover from. He would have none of it. He would destroy any and all obstacles laid out before him, and he would avenge the murder of his friends.

Now that Sakura had taken notice for herself of Syaoran's concerns, the first thing she saw was the impenetrable madness that had engulfed Reios, the wide-eyed and shifty glances that regarded every one of them as potential enemies. It was both horrific and saddening to think that someone could have been pushed so far. It was also completely unbelievable that Reios, of all people, could be lost to the depths of despair and insanity such as this. She had seen him fight, during the battles against the previous spirits. She had witnessed the zeal with which he had fought to defend his charges, a zeal that had turned the tide of an impossible battle on two separate occasions. For as little a time as she had known him, she knew that he was far to strong to succumb to something like this.

"We are not your enemy," Eriol called out, "Get a hold of yourself!"

"Just leave me alone" Reios whispered, though in the language that only one of them could understand. He raised the tip of his silvered sword towards the sky, while his katana fell away carelessly from his left hand, "Illusions, leave me be. Just come back..."

Eriol noted a movement from Reios's now-pocketed left hand, just as the spell from the card released itself. From his skyward-pointed sword, its body radiating thickly with a darkened and chaotic power, came a blackened bolt of lightning. Piercing the heavens above, it crashed back down upon them just as quickly as it had left. Their lives were spared only by the quick reactions of Eriol and Syaoran pulling the two girls away to safety, but even then they could feel from the charge in the air of just how close it had really been.

Just as they were recovering from the rough landing, Eriol caught notice that Reios was removing another card from his side pocket, preparing for it's use.

"Why did you leave me? Why did I make you..?" Reios muttered, while the crystal upon his sword began to radiate with a visible blackness. It was the very antithesis of light, and it was sucking in all possible forms of illumination around it. The pitch-black crystal on the sword's pommel was gaining strength for its pending attack.

"We don't have time for this," Syaoran muttered, taking the initiative by charging in against Reios before anyone could do anything else. He dropped his sword in behind him as he rushed forward, intending to put his entire strength into a slicing assault. Noticing this, Reios raised his own sword, even as it continued to build up its energy, and set into a stance to parry the obvious attack.

In his deluded state, however, he failed to take heed of Syaoran's angle of attack shifting ever so slightly. It was enough to allow Syaoran to side-step the parry and put himself around and behind Reios. Bringing his weapon upwards with a wide, arcing motion, he slapped at Reios's sword with the broad side of his own blade, knocking it clear away from Reios's hand and dispelling the magic that it had been gathering. Allowing no time for a recovery, Syaoran pulled his free arm back away from his target, and with all the strength he could muster struck his opponent hard across the face with his left fist. The blow was enough to send his opponent rolling dangerously close to the cliff's edge.

"What do you think you're doing, attacking us like that!?" Syaoran yelled, putting the full effort of his voice against the man on the ground before him.

They managed to get a translated response out of him this time, "Because you are dead. You don't exist."

He had refused to look at them to say it, but his words struck everyone like a thrown brick all the same. Eriol was the first to realize it, and thus explained himself, "I was unable to arrive in time to interrupt the dream-spell on him, as I did for the rest of you. He was not asleep alongside you all when I had arrived, which would suggest that the water spirit drew him away purposefully, its intent likely being to pick us all off one at a time. But whatever the case, his mind has been horribly crippled as a result of the spirit's efforts. Something disastrous must have happened within the nightmare that he was shown, to be able to push the human mind to such extremes."

"Nightmare... nightmare?" Reios muttered repeatedly as he struggled vainly to rise back to his feet. The furthest he got was to push himself up onto all fours, "Yes, a nightmare. One of blood, and the stain of death upon my oath-sworn blade. Now I am alone – a fitting punishment for a betrayer. So what do I care now?"

"You should care because you swore that oath!" Syaoran shouted down at him.

"There is no oath if those under it have been cut down by my betrayal," he intoned morbidly. His voice was flat and morose, completely lacking of any emotional feeling, "Now please, do not approach me again. I would rather take my own life than have to take you all again, illusions or not. To relive that nightmare again... what I wouldn't give to see you one more time before the end..."

"Open your eyes, we aren't the illusions!" Syaoran yelled at him again, "What that bewitched spirit has shown you is nothing more than a façade! Recall what you saw! You know that what you experienced was wrong!"

"Wrong...?" he asked of himself, unwillingly playing back the memories of his previous life. The one where he had taken two innocents with his own blade. Within the caverns, where light was nonexistent, he had become a part of the darkness in taking the lives of his two friends. Within that darkness, he had mourned momentarily over them before openly welcoming the rage that had so overwhelmed and destroyed him.

Within the darkness. Where light was... nonexistent...? But, then how...?

Reios's eyes snapped wide open. Then how was it that he was able to clearly see the two bodies in the first place? Intrigued, he searched his memories further. Willingly, he pulled forth every vivid and painful detail that he could think to recall of those two bodies. The most cruel of all, the cutting wound where his sword had sliced through the both of them... it had given no blood! In fact, his diagonal cut should have split anything over their shoulders clean off of their bodies. He would have noticed such signs of gore as the very first detail, as would have anyone, and yet he had heeded only their fallen bodies and glazed-over eyes. Indeed, now that he thought on it, even their clothing had remained in perfect condition. Not even a single cut had marked them. This, too, he would have noticed.

"Do you understand it yet?" Eriol asked, approaching the two that were positioned along the cliff, "The spirit tested us all with our greatest fears. It would seem that yours was a powerful one, to force the mind to such extremes."

Even though Reios had realized all of the falsehoods, he still could not bring himself to deny the feel of steel against flesh. He had surely felt the cut, even though his memories now denied him the proof of the results. His mind wandered continuously, the words flowing out as they came to him, "All... lies? But it was so real... I felt... I felt it, my sword... it was a clean cut, but I couldn't stop myself. I was... I was afraid. I took the chance before it was lost, and ...I killed... you..." he trailed off, his gaze skipping from Sakura to Tomoyo in turn, emphasizing to them the meaning of his stuttered words. His eyes soon skipped back away from them, "I was all... all alone after that. The oath that I had sworn, broken, because I was being a childish coward."

"But then," Sakura put in, walking up to stand beside Eriol, "we're still here, right? We're here right now. You're _not_ alone, now."

Something in the back of his mind told him that he didn't have to trust these illusions any more than any of the others that the demon-spirit had shown him during their fight, but everything else within him believed their words to make complete sense. He wanted the painful memories to just leave him alone, to make everything just leave him alone. To forget the world, and to make the world forget. To completely erase the pain as though it had never even happened. And yet, if he were to allow that, then he would then end up being truly alone. He asked himself about which of the two was really the easier choice, even though he already knew the answer.

In the end, the easy way out that he so desired would only destroy him completely.

Pushing himself off the ground where Syaoran had put him and setting himself into a kneeling position, Reios carefully examined each of those nearby him to assure himself of his decision. Placing his silvered sword onto the ground, he bowed his head down respectively before them, "Please, forgive me... I... I was a coward, and let basic fear take control of me. I... I just..."

"I would not bother with forgiveness, for you'll all be dead soon anyway."

Away from the cliff's edge and out into the open air was where their attention was taken, to a point where waves of vapor swirled and gathered themselves into a thick mist. That mist soon condensed itself into the form of a mermaid-like creature, its form floating over the cliff's edge and onto solid ground as it solidified itself into flesh. Reios, recognizing the spirit for what it was before the others could know of what they faced, took his chance at a first strike. He yanked his weapon off of the rocky ground where he had placed it and rushed the spirit's position in a screaming act of now-righteous vengeance. Yet for all his rage at having been violated, for all the resolve of never wanting to live through that nightmare ever again, it all came to naught as the spirit once again shot him away effortlessly with a hammering stream of water. He landed none-too-gently back near the cavern archway where Tomoyo still stood, which made the remaining witness rush out into the open to ensure his well-being.

The mermaid-like spirit laughed gently in amusement, raising its hand to caress its blue-tinted chin thoughtfully, "Yet still you continue to struggle. Interesting, is it not? That one who can kill his own companions in cold blood still fights to protect them. What is the point?"

"And what do you protect?" Reios shot back, using Tomoyo's assistance to force himself back to his feet for what felt like the twelfth time, "What is it for you? What is the thing that, even within absolute defeat, you are willing to give your life for to defend? Where does your strength come from!?"

Amazingly, the spirit actually stopped to consider such words, "I... the one I... protect? Is he...? ...no, _never_! My only wish, my _purpose, _is singular! I will not be denied this! Your lives are mine to take!!"

As it screamed out viciously at those upon the plateau, it dissolved from flesh, to mist, and finally into a large, spherical mass of water, an image that shot chills all down Tomoyo's spine. The mass quivered in place as if taken by some strong wind, then bounded backwards and over the cliff to fall down into the ocean below. By the time anyone had reached the cliff to view the results of such a rash act, there was nothing left to be seen. All that remained below them was composed of just rock and seawater.

"What the hell did it mean by that?" Syaoran asked quietly to no one in particular.

"Either it has run away, or it is gathering its power for another attack," Eriol replied to him, "We should remain on our guard for a while."

"Sakura, can you sense where it is?" Syaoran inquired, an impatience growing on him as her eyes closed up. Her mind wandered the surrounding area as requested, searching for their target. He, in turn, stared questioningly at the horizon when she opened her eyes again, shaking her head in defeat.

"What is it?" Tomoyo asked, confusing everyone for a moment until they realized that she was speaking to Reios. He was now glaring fiercely out onto the waters, too.

"It's that noise again... a deep roaring, just like in the caves," he muttered in explanation, still maintaining his concentration on the horizon. They quieted themselves and listened to the air, yet could hear nothing beyond the loud crashing of the waves below them.

"It's a tsunami," Eriol noted, his magically attuned senses picking out his surroundings more easily than the rest, "A final, desperate ploy by the spirit to be rid of us. Even though it has yet to crest the horizon, it will be on us rather soon." This new information resulted in Reios releasing a thin sigh, muttering to himself about having had enough of water for one day.

"So, now what do we do?" Syaoran asked, turning away from the horizon, which was now starting to slowly rise upwards in a thin curve, to face Eriol, "We're going to need some way to counter the _h-hey_ wait a–! ...second..."

He tried to stop her from acting, even though he was fully aware that it was completely useless to try anyway. Sakura had already jumped over the edge of the cliff before he could even finish speaking, falling out of sight only to reappear moments later bearing a pair of large, angelic wings on her back. Those wings brought her further up into the half-clouded skies with each downward sweep, speeding her off over the ocean waters and towards the distant storm, and the destruction that the spirit had planned for them.

"There she goes, being reckless again..." Syaoran remarked with a twinge of annoyance and a hand on his hip as he stared incredulously at the speck in the distance that was flying further and further away from them.


	34. Ocean's Soul

_4-7b: Ocean's Soul_

He tried to stop her from acting, even though he was fully aware that it was completely useless to try anyway. Sakura had already jumped over the edge of the cliff before he could even finish speaking, falling out of sight only to reappear moments later bearing a pair of large, angelic wings on her back. Those wings brought her further up into the half-clouded skies with each downward sweep, speeding her off over the ocean waters and towards the distant storm, and the destruction that the spirit had planned for them.

"There she goes, being reckless again..." Syaoran remarked with a twinge of annoyance, a hand on his hip as he stared incredulously at the speck in the distance that was flying further and further away from them.

That speck knew, though, that it was a life or death situation they all now faced, and so she couldn't afford to wait for someone to come up with a good idea. She couldn't afford to just stand around pondering while the lives of her friends were put in jeopardy. So even if it was impulsive and decidedly reckless of her, Sakura had chosen to act. She had no idea yet as to how she was going to put a stop to all of this madness, and more especially while on her own, but she would find a way. She had to.

She continually scanned around her, trying to detect any form of presence or source of magic as she flew fast over the ocean waters. At this point, she could only hope to come upon the mermaid-like water spirit before it could strike out at her. At the distance from the shoreline that Sakura was at, and with the distance that she was still steadily gaining, there was no longer a chance of rescue if she were to fail. She was within the spirit's domain, now, which meant that even a single slip up would spell her defeat. Her reaction was thus understandable, in that context, when the spirit suddenly lashed out at her from below.

Immediately the Shield was set into place, its defenses prepared to deflect any kind of attack, while the Thunder struck out blindly with an arcing blade of yellow electricity. Sakura's preemptive strike missed its target by a fairly wide margin, yet there came no counterattack to the assault that had left her relatively wide open to such an attempt. Instead, her actions left the mermaid-like water spirit floating motionless outside of her protective Shield. It was merely watching her closely, intently scanning into her soul with an almost desperate stare. But despite the lull in the action, Sakura didn't allow her defenses to waver for even a second. She couldn't afford to let this unexpected development distract her now, at this one moment where the battle could go in any which way for her. She even moved to prepare another attack card, just in case the spirit thought to do anything.

What surprised her the most, in the end, was when it addressed her, "I did protect something, once."

The words completely threw Sakura off guard, and she listened closely as the mermaid-spirit continued, "I once held something dear to me, it is true. It is something that I envy of you humans, now that my purpose has been driven away from me. I envy you and your kind, that you will always have something of yourselves to safeguard against harm. A life, a family, a love. I could not stand to see your people have something that I had been denied, and so I wished vengeance upon you."

The remorse within the spirit's voice was easily detectable. Sakura knew where this was going, "You loved someone once, didn't you? You still do."

The mermaid's eyes fell away towards the sea waters below, as though it were ashamed, "He was human, if one were to believe that. And the strangest part was that he returned that love to me in equal to everything that I gave to him. Me, a creature of the seas that could never be like him, and yet he often said that being with me gave him the greatest feelings of joy that he would ever experience. And it was the same for me. I gave up the ocean's depths – my very home – all just to be with him, and for the short time that we had together... a lifetime to him... we were happy. But he was mortal, while I am a creature of the spiritual realm, and I eventually outlived him as he was taken from me by an illness. It had saddened me greatly that I would never be able to see him again, and I'd sworn to always keep him alive in my own heart.

"But soon after his departure, there came those who had lived around him – members of the tribal village that he and I had lived in, a people that I had also grown fond of. With nowhere else to turn, they began to blame me for his death out of ignorance and fear. They believed that I had held the power to save him, or that I had secretly planned his demise, and they all sought retribution against me for it. And though they were ultimately powerless against me, I regardless found myself afraid of their retribution. I feared, what if they were right? What if there was something I could have done to save him, to prolong his life? What if it _was_ somehow all my fault? Doubt and fear combined to overwhelm me, and... I ran away. I took to the waters that I had once called home, but they pursued me relentlessly in their ships and boats.

"In fleeing their wrath, one with the power to influence even life and death itself found me, offering me an escape from all of the pain. He promised that, in his new world that I could help create, I would no longer fear, and I would no longer hurt. Desperate for such a release, I bound myself to him by oath. Then, under his guidance, I eventually turned against those who would hunt me, and in my fear I decimated them utterly. I had truly become that which they thought they were hunting."

The mermaid turned itself about, facing its back towards Sakura while hugging at itself loosely, "It is an uneasy concept for me to grasp, that those I had come to love and protect had been destroyed by my own hand. It was then that I realized that I no longer had anything to protect at all, but instead wished for everything to be destroyed. That everything should suffer as I had, and then all be washed away to be simply forgotten. To be forgotten, so that I could one day forget. This thought, a purpose that my master had thoroughly embedded into me, has long since become too great a desire to ignore. Even now, as I admit this to myself, I seek the destruction of all life..."

"It doesn't have to be like that, you know," Sakura countered, a gentle smile spread across her face despite the horizon's swiftly approaching danger, "You can still protect his memory by remembering and honoring who he was. You can remember what the two of you had together, and then share that happiness with everyone else. To miss the person you love can sometimes be a painful feeling, yes. I know this all too well. But who will be able to remember him if no one is left to bear the memory? Wouldn't losing those memories hurt even more than having to bear them?"

This was something that it had never really considered, that a memory is something to be shared by everyone involved. If everyone and everything were to fall away into emptiness, that memory would fall away with them. And if those memories were to fall away, the only source of joy left to it would be gone forever. It realized that this was something it could not allow. It could not allow its feelings to be forgotten, nor did it have the right to force this inevitability upon someone else. To do so would cause it to become no better than the one who had claimed its servitude through a sworn pact, a pact that had ravaged and destroyed its mind and soul in the process. The cruel master whom had forced it to become as it was now, a mirror of himself: a death-craving monster.

It reached out with a clawed hand, stretching its mind out towards the ocean below, willing the waters to calm and recede. But when it felt no reply from the water's depths, when it felt the clouds of dark mist shrouding the roads to its power, it knew then that there was no other way.

It turned itself back towards its former enemy, "My master seeks your destruction, regardless of my choice. Because of this, his strengths are placed against me, rendering me powerless. Please, seal my life away, as you have done with the others of my kind. Only then will your light be strong enough to break the path to the end that I had originally chosen. Seal me away, so that my... so that the memory of the one I loved may be preserved."

Sakura hesitated greatly, though she couldn't fully understand why. She knew that she had to seal the spirit away in order to put a stop to the coming dangers, and yet a voice within her was telling her that it deserved a second chance. It at least deserved a chance to find a way to redeem itself. Unfortunately, she knew that she had only the one, singular option available to her, if she was to try and counter the fast-approaching disaster. It was thus, with a heavy heart, that she pointed her wand out before her and called out the incantation.

"Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Oceans, be disjoined!"

Before being taken in by Sakura's sealing spell, and even against the swirling of space and time, it managed to whisper one last wish.

"My love... forgive me..."

Reality twisted and compressed itself sickeningly, imploding into a singular point to create the crystalline sphere that would hold the spirit's consciousness, while being left behind in place of its physical body was the aura of its power. Diving to catch the sphere out of midair, Sakura made a quick mental scan of her immediate area. She could already feel the magic influences upon the waters around her dissipating, thanks to the sealing spell eliminating the "threat" that the spirit had posed, but this did nothing to disenchant the approaching tsunami itself. It was still raging its way fast towards her with a god's fury. Those upon the shore still had some small time to prepare, but that wave of destruction would be upon her in not... even...

Wait a second...

Wave of... destruction...? Wave...

"That's it!"

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

"There!" Tomoyo shouted, pointing out a faint golden glow just below the horizon's increasingly taller reach. Sakura was doing something.

"Everyone, back away from the cliff," Eriol ordered, pushing them all back with outstretched arms. No sooner than they had done this was when the waters below began to churn about almost with a new sense of purpose. Those waters rolled not into the shoreline as they had originally been doing, but rather began to speed themselves swiftly _away_ from it. Rolling and frothing throws of water were all gathering in size and speed as a new wave of water built itself up and rushed off into the distance. Before long, the wave had built itself up taller than any of them could see, blocking out any further observation of what Sakura was doing.

"The Wave card," Syaoran noted, "She's going to try and fight fire with fire, again. But if she's on her own, will it be enough?"

"Well, we still have two more Wave cards," Reios told them, holding up both his Wave and Force cards, "And even if that doesn't work, I'm pretty sure I could create a big enough explosion from here to dissipate whatever gets left behind. But I think we can all trust in her power, right?"

"Easily," Eriol replied, sliding his glasses back into place to hide a rather confident grin.

"Oh, by the way," Reios added, snapping his fingers to the realization of a memory before turning sharply against Syaoran, "did you _really_ have to hit me that hard? I'm probably going to get a black eye from this, now..." He rubbed the left side of his face – which was actually starting to show a slight shade of purple – simply for effect.

Syaoran retorted flatly, "It was either that, or I let you blow up the entire plateau. You got off easy."

The loud rush of a thunder-like explosion reaching their ears stifled any potential rebuttal that Reios might have had, as the two magically-induced tsunamis collided against one another out in the middle of the ocean. Enormous sprays of water were scattering in every possible direction, with the earth-shaking crash causing the waters below the cliff to rock back and forth against the shoreline as though they were being tossed about within in a gigantic basin. The chaotic situation of the seas before them set aside, the approaching tsunami seemed to have been successfully disrupted by Sakura's magic. There wasn't a single trace of either of the two waves anywhere out in the distant scenery, aside from a few lingering clouds of spraying mist. Even the clouded and stormy skies that had built up above the impact zone were beginning to clear away.

The heroine in question made a landing onto the plateau not long after the sea waters began to ease and subside, and she returned to them holding a blue, spherical crystal within her hands. Allowing the wings of the Fly to vaporize from sight, she faced her fast-approaching friends with a bright smile, and fingered a "V" for the handheld camera that had appeared out of nowhere.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	35. Campfire Stories

_4-8: Campfire Stories_

With the few storm clouds that had lingered on after the dissipation of the mermaid's magic-enforced control over the area, there had been talks going on all during their afternoon chores – chores consisting of the scouting party having to haul their belongings (and their friends) up to the plateau – about how the weather forecast might end up being wrong, and that they wouldn't get to camp outdoors. Yet as the darkness of night began to approach, the skies ended up turning towards the complete opposite of their expectations, lacking in any storms, or even clouds. Instead, nature allowed the entirety of the stars to be seen in their full glory, a beautiful and glittering view that was often quite difficult to clearly see from their usual sub-urban locations, and so it was all the more appreciated. The feelings of peace that came from such a sight was only enhanced by the serene glow of the waxing gibbous moon. Into this was added the soft washing of the waves below the plateau, with the occasional crackling of the campfire around which the nine friends were gathered, then with everyone being served small mugs of tea cooked straight from the fire, and what one ended up with was the perfect setting for a night out under the stars.

After everyone had settled in for the evening, their attentions turned towards the most beloved of human pastimes: small talk about the weather. It had taken a great deal of effort on Sakura's part to convince Takashi's half of their entourage that all of the chaos upon the plateau had been the result of some freak super-storm, and not the workings of the conflicts of magic. It was fortunate enough for her that the lot that had remained down on the beach had taken refuge within the cabins, and had thus had little opportunity to witness most of the action. This made it rather easy to get away with a weaker-than-normal cover story. Most importantly, it seemed to be that they had paid little notice to the two giant tsunamis that had collided over the ocean, which was a miracle to say the least. They couldn't have possibly missed hearing the resulting sonic boom of the two waves colliding against one another, but that could always be attributed to the "freak super-storm", if it came right down to it.

Then there was the need to explain away the veritable mauling that Reios had received from the water spirit, with multiple bruises and lashings marking his extremities, and the claw-formed gashes across his chest. These had required the use of two separate Flower cards just to create the right kind of medicinal herbs that Eriol had needed to staunch the bleeding and minimize the bruising, though he afterwards noted pointedly that the chest wounds would never fully heal, but would leave behind some rather heavy scarring. By comparison, the shredded and bloodied articles of clothing that had resulted from those injuries were hidden away easily enough by the use of an Illusion card mimicking his clothing's original condition, a temporary solution until Reios could get at his belongings and change into something a little more intact. From there, they had only needed to devise a second cover story to explain why his arms were all bruised purple from being whipped countless times. Saying that he had taken a rough fall during some simple rock climbing ended up causing him some undue (and unwanted) attention, but in the end it had served to keep away all the unanswerable questions.

"It's too bad about that freak storm earlier, though," Chiharu put in, cutting off the small silence that had somehow gathered around them, "It kind of wasted half of the day."

"Yeah, I wouldn't have minded another round of volleyball before coming up here," Takashi added, twirling a small twig between his fingers as he went, "but what was really interesting was that loud thunder that came out from the ocean, after the storm had passed."

"What if that came from those two giant waves that were out there? One was coming towards us, but the other was moving _away_ from us, so maybe they collided with each other? I was worried about those..." Naoko questioned. Most of those related to such events suddenly found themselves holding their breaths at those questions. It had been believed that no one else had noticed that part of their fight.

Being the one that was _not_ holding his breath, Reios continued on with the current topic, "What's even _more_ strange than that, was what we saw when we finally made it to this plateau. Just as we got to the cliff's edge, we could see a giant tsunami speeding its way closer to the shoreline. Soon after spotting it, a _new_ wave rose up from the shoreline and rolled its way out to sea, eventually blocking out our view of the horizon. And when the two finally collided,it was like, _BOOM_!" he threw his arms wide outwards for emphasis, "This humongous explosion of water going everywhere. One would think that two separate tsunami would be impossible like that, though I am glad that such a thing didn't make it to the shoreline, so I'm not complaining. Who knows what kind of damage it could have caused?"

Sakura couldn't believe what Reios had just said. It was as if he _wanted_ the others to try and figure out what had really happened earlier in the day. With their secrets on the verge of being blown wide open, she nearly broke out into a cold sweat. Her eyes began darting back and forth between every person that she thought would be able to decipher through their cover story, hoping that maybe she could counter their questions before it got too far.

"Maybe it _was_ them..." Takashi muttered, earning strange looks from practically everyone. Not to mention a concerned one from Chiharu.

With her curiosity matching her fear of being found out, Sakura asked timidly, "Them, who?"

"The aliens!" was Takashi's excited reply, "I mean, it would explain everything! Their ships can sometimes be so massive that they can create gravitational fluctuations when near a planetary atmosphere. That's what caused the waters to look so choppy! The sudden freak storm we had would have been them landing in some kind of shuttle. And then the loud thunder would have to be some kind of tractor beam striking down the tsunami out there. It all makes sense!"

A tensed arm reached up to snatch at Takashi's ear, until that arm's owner heard Eriol speak, "It surprises me greatly that they would make such a ruckus in a place where there were humans about. Normally, they like to keep their identities and whereabouts a secret. Still, that they would protect the beaches that they had worked so hard to build, despite this fact, only suggests that they are still around us."

To Chiharu's benefit, she was currently sitting "in between" the conversation. This afforded her the great opportunity of utilizing both of her arms to snatch at the ears of _both_ of the two fibbers. She took no pleasure in their sudden cries of pain, but instead admonished them sharply, "That's enough out of the both of you! We don't need you two adding more lies on top of what is already a mystery!"

"But it's all true!" the two said, and in unison no less. With an over-exaggerated sigh, she flung the two ears away forcefully. She gave up completely on ever getting the two of them to keep their false facts to themselves.

Sakura, on the other hand, was just glad for Eriol's (and in a way, Takashi's) quick-witted attempt at derailing the topic, though she would have to remember to ask later about why these aliens were always so anti-social.

It took a few more attempts at scolding the two tall-tale tellers over the course of the night, despite having originally given up on such efforts, but Chiharu eventually managed to wear the two out enough to cause them a need for sleep. Time soon saw to everyone sleeping soundly around the dying fire, each of them wrapped up within thick sleeping bags. With the oceans below humming their tuneless song against the sandy beaches and ocean-side cliffs, even the agitated Sakura – who was still recovering from how close they had come to having their secrets discovered – found it fairly easy to be lulled off into sleep.

Or at least, this would have all remained true, if not for a certain black-haired girl who found it nearly impossible to close her eyes for more than a short duration. After too much waiting for nothing, Tomoyo simply just refused herself any further attempts at sleep, and instead got up quietly to walk away from the campfire's soft circle of light. From there she made her way over to the cliff's edge, sitting herself onto the precipice to mindlessly examine the moon's waving reflection over the blackened waters. Silent contemplation eventually overtook her empty thoughts.

The strongest thought that then came to her mind was that should her eyes ever sleep, would she wake up the next morning to the same world that she knew so well? To the same people – person – that she cared for? Normally, she wouldn't allow herself to dwell upon such depressing thoughts. Normally, she would trust that things would always turn out all right, like they always had before. But this day had been anything but normal. The dream that she had recently experienced was _anything_ but normal. Thanks to her experiences with the rogue Dream card from all those years ago, Tomoyo now put more stock into the meaning of dreams than she used to, and as a result she now found herself unwillingly brooding over the meanings of the one that she had been shown by the water spirit's manipulations.

"I never thought that I would be able to look _down_ upon the night sky."

She jumped slightly at Reios's voice sounding out quietly above her. She hadn't even noticed him wake up, let alone approach. Covering away her surprise, she instead took a kind of pleasure in the sudden company, and turned her attention back to the moon's distorted reflection below her before he could notice that she had been disturbed. She allowed her thoughts to return to their prior contemplations, to the meanings within the dreams that had caused her faith in magic – which, until now, had been undying and unwavering – to falter. Her faith in a certain someone's magic that had–

"You're thinking about her again, aren't you?"

If Reios's sudden presence had caused her any amount of surprise, his newest words threw her completely for a loop. She whipped her head about to stare up at him, emotions of shock, amazement, and even fear all easily read upon her face. Was she really being that transparent?

"Don't act so surprised," he remarked to her with a smirk, then turned back to stare into the ocean, "I told you that I listen to people, sometimes even when they don't want me to. It's just what I do, and it's how I learn to understand things. And for you, often enough your entire purpose to act is based solely on her. This is how you've described your life to me. Or rather, how you've described your dream to me – the one about having her model for you, right? After what I've been told happened to you all in the caverns today, I find it as no surprise that you're once again seeking some form of answer. I would, too, so... here I am."

Her mixed expressions turned to one of confusion, a look he noted with a side glance. After a slight hesitation, he sat himself down on the cliff's edge, then took in and released a deep breath before continuing, "Eriol said that what we were shown today were visions of our greatest fears, nightmares spawned of the darker places in our hearts. Mine has always been a fear of isolation. Something aided by a childhood phobia of dark places, I suppose. Within that world created for me, I was subjected to that experience, and was thrown into an uncontrollable panic. Then, to add insult to injury, from that panic and fear I ended up... killing... both you and her. Then, eventually, everyone else. Several times, in fact, before you all had intervened on my fight with that mermaid creature. I now understand that it had been mere illusions of you all, but that doesn't change the fact of what I _thought_ I was doing. It's not something that I'll easily forget any time soon, even if it wasn't real."

Tomoyo's eyes flew open at the thought of what he was suggesting, examining him to better gauge his current emotional state, "That's... horrible..."

Silence fell upon them after that, since there was really nothing that Tomoyo could possibly say to counter his story. After a time, she finally just spoke of her own story, though she surprised herself at the calmness of her own words, "It was... the same for me. Within my own visions, I was shown a world where she would be lost to me. What made it all the more painful was that I was right there to see it happen, and that I was powerless to do anything about it. And even worse still was how I began to feel about it. The emotions that I began to harbor from that loss... they scared me almost as much as the thought of losing– no... they scared me far more than anything else, I think, ever possibly could. I don't think that I could keep going if it were all to happen for real. And thanks to Eriol's recent revelations, to know that it might actually come to pass some day... it's..."

Her voice trailed off as thoughts of the prophecy brought in from England swept through both of their minds. Now was not the time for such depressing matters, though, as they had forced open a whole other Pandora's Box as it was. Intent on turning the mood, Reios moved the topic on, "And so you care for her _that_ deeply. Now I understand it. But then, she already has Syaoran, right? The feelings that they have for each other are shared equally between the two. This much is obvious, yet you seem to welcome and even encourage such feelings, all despite your own. Instead of torturing yourself in this, why don't you seek out fulfillment? Say something to her."

Such words, coming as they were from one who was taught in a western culture, surprised her even further, "It is because my greatest desire is to have her remain happy, and that things remain as they were meant to be. As long as I can have that, I, too, am happy. But then," she added, thinking on the point that she had just internally raised, "you come from a western culture, a society that 'strongly frowns' upon such... relationships, if it can be said that way. Why do you not detest all of this?"

He crossed his arms at such words, snorting disdainfully, "Society... such a term was developed to give the uncontrolled masses a sense of control over the lives around them. People never feel comfortable unless they are in complete control of their surroundings, and even then they will act on feelings of paranoia and suspicion if they feel that control slipping in even the slightest way. What has yet to be realized is that control is limited to oneself, and beyond that it is all dependent on the strength and will of others. Or, in most cases, a lack thereof.

"My society – that is, my _old _society – normally deems such relationships unacceptable because they themselves are indoctrinated to believe them as unacceptable. Influences ranging from religion to historical references dictate that these things hinder 'proper' moral values, and such beliefs passed down through the generations because people choose not to know better. They choose to be lead, to take the easy way out, instead of _doing_ the leading, and setting an example. They then take those influences and willingly find reasons to justify them in order to become a part of the 'greater good', at which point they lose their hold over the control that they so often crave."

He paused in his lecture for a moment, then added in, "And while I'm at it, Japan is no better, either. It's not like 'your' people don't have their own inhibitions and taboos to work with, but now I'm digressing.

"Anyway, what I'm trying to say is this: what should instead be considered is that one has the ability to make a choice for oneself. What another person thinks about a situation should have no bearing on one's own goals and desires. Such is the case here. What I may or may not believe about your feelings for her should have no bearing on the decisions you wish to make, because _you_ are the one that is living your life. Not me, nor anyone else, should be allowed to dictate what you want to do. So instead of causing friction with a recently-acquired friend by condemning what is simple human nature, I would instead support their efforts to the best of my ability. If you were expecting me to laugh or scoff at you, well... let's just say I'd rather not ruin anything."

Another length of silence passed as a kind of understanding began to build between the two of them. That they could share in each other's aspirations and miseries was something of a relief, and to Tomoyo in particular, for she had never really had a confidant of her own. She herself was usually the one working as such for a great number of other people, acting as the shoulder to cry on or the counselor that always gave out good advice. As her mood and spirits began to rise with the words of encouragement being provided to her, so too did her head pull away from the reflection of moonlight upon the ocean below her. She instead chose to stare towards the white light of the real moon above her.

Reios smiled to himself, chuckling softly at a memory, "You know, there's a belief back where I came from. Something that relates rather closely to a superstition here in Japan. When praying for one's hopes and desires to come true, sending those prayers to the stars in the form of a wish will one day have them granted. Of course, on my end of the story, this only occurs if you're able to spot the first star of the night sky. But now that I think on it, I have a different theory."

Tomoyo looked intrigued about that, "A different theory?"

Reios nodded to her, "Yeah. Well, we both know that the stars have a strong sense of magical power, right? This much alone is evident in Sakura's ability to utilize such power. And if I'm right..." he paused in his speech as he trailed his hand along the black abyss above them, his finger stretching away as he attempted to single out a small speck among untold millions, "it's... um... ah ha, there. That faint star right there, the one just below that brighter, pentagon-like constellation. You see it? It's her primary star, the one she draws the most power from, and it perfectly symbolizes her light: faint, yet ever-glowing.

"If you were to make a wish to that star, I'd be willing to bet that her powers would allow them to come true."

Tomoyo leaned in close to him, her eyes scanning the sparkling skies above his hand to locate the constellation that he had dictated. Before long, her eyes came across the faint speck that sat just below the pentagon-shaped formation that he had found, and immediately she felt a bond of familiarity practically radiate out from it. It was as if she were being surrounded by the warm and endearing embrace that had held her and consoled her earlier that day. She had no magical powers, and so she knew that these feelings were all in her head, but she also knew right away, without a doubt, that this was Sakura's star. The one spark of light that Sakura, and no other, could lay claim to.

As an extra thought, Reios added, "Hope is often symbolized by the light of the stars: ever glowing, whether faintly or brightly, even in the darkest of hours."

Upon that star, Tomoyo made her wish.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	36. The Promise

_4-9: The Promise_

The fluttering of wings stirred the branches above as a blue-crested robin came in for a landing to rest, preparing itself for a tiring day of collecting twigs and other assortments of foliage for its nest. A cry from the west, the familiar calling of its mate, caused it to return the call in kind before speeding off in continued fulfillment of its purpose in life. These calls, in turn, garnered the attention of a third entity from below the green-leafed trees. As the little robin took to its flight, a pair of emerald eyes opened up to the sight of its former perch swaying gently back and forth above her.

Sakura propped herself upright, while being mindful of the tender bruises that she was still nursing, and clung tightly to the warmth of her sleeping bag as the early morning chill of the ocean air finally made itself known to her. She stared around at the camp, at the ashes of the previous evening's fire still glowing faintly, and at the still-sleeping bodies of her companions. It did not take long for her to notice that one of those bodies was missing.

She glanced out towards the cliff's edge, though the light of the pre-dawn sun forced her to squint against the sudden brightness. Despite this, she saw a figure silhouetted against the light, and she wondered silently at what he was doing up so early in the morning. She quickly wondered at how _she_ was up so early, but dropped the thought just as quickly as she threw her covers aside. The brisk morning air snapped at her senses sharply as she moved quietly away from the camp, its refreshing coldness rudely shoving away what precious little was left of her "sleepy-head" status.

Her approach was easily detected by Syaoran, and he stretched his arm back to embrace her gently as she stepped up beside him. It would seem that he had had the same thoughts as her, for he couldn't resist saying, "You're up really early, for once."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked playfully, nudging him gently with her elbow, "What time is it, anyway?"

Syaoran glanced at the watch attached to the arm hanging from her shoulder, incidentally showing her the time at the same moment. It wasn't even six o'clock yet. She grinned in spite of herself, "Yeah, that is pretty early for me."

They both turned out towards the horizon, watching the sun that was just starting to break across the ocean's reach. The waters were soon covered within the deep crimson glow of the sun's rays, washing ashore to meet sparkling grains of sand that had also turned a beautiful shade of red. The two elements of water and earth merged together to form a singular, infinite ocean of ruby light, a majestic sight broken only by the visible line of ruby-tinted trees that were set further down the beach head. For a brief moment, it did indeed seem as if they were afloat in the middle of nowhere, just the two of them within their own little paradise. It was a wondrous moment that she would lock away in her memory for as long as she could hold it there.

After a time, Syaoran removed his arm, turning to look at her as she glanced up at him questioningly. She had not wanted to let go of that moment just yet. She then noticed that he was holding something, and allowed herself to look away from his eyes and towards the object that he held, which was soon offered up to her. It was a blue, soft-velvet box, and the edges of its lid were lined in a light silver cloth. It took her a bit to realize that he was actually giving it to her.

"For me?" she asked quietly, unsure of the situation. He nodded silently, continuing to hold out the box for her until she finally accepted it. Her intuition told her, at that moment, that this was why he had panicked at her arrival in the storage shed the previous morning. He had been hiding this from her.

Her eyes met back up with his as he explained, "In celebration for a birthday that I was hoping to be here for."

"May I open it?"

He nodded again, allowing her to pry open the lid with one of her hands. Yet she stopped herself half-way through this act as he added onto his first reason, "It also represents something. Something that I was forced to realize after yesterday's events."

She looked up at him in confusion, still not understanding his intent, but only received an urging wave of his hand to finish opening the box. Her interests piqued, she quickly did as she was told.

When the early-morning sunlight finally found its way onto the pearl-white cloth that lined the inside of the box, her eyes and mouth went wide with more astonishment than he had been expecting, though her free hand quickly moved to futilely cover up the audible gasp that was attempting to escape. She held in her hand what looked like a priceless artwork of jewelry, something that only the fairy-tale princess out of one of her fantasy novels could ever come to own. A golden necklace designed with an intricate star-field pattern, inlaid with various sizes and cuts of diamonds. One of the diamonds, set into a larger, golden star that was centered on the pattern, was itself a five-pointed star.

Her eyes met with his for a third time, ever-so-wistfully seeking for the answers that she was soon given, "What it also represents is a promise. I've come to appreciate what you've given to me far more than I ever did before, due in no small part to that mermaid's efforts. In a way, I want to thank it for putting me through that nightmare, because it made me realize all over again of just how much I really want to be here. It made me understand how very important you are to me. By giving you this, I want to say that I'll always be with you. It is my promise that I will always love you, Sakura."

Words would never have been enough, this much was plainly obvious to her. For the words of devotion offered, coupled with such a beautiful gift, anything Sakura could have said in return would have just ruined the moment. So instead, she leaned into him in a full embrace, cradling her cheek up against his chest as he surrounded her once again within his warm, one-armed embrace. Together, they continued to stare out at a sunrise that now seemed more vivid and colorful than ever before. Never again would they be able see a dawn so beautiful, because it was an absolute certainty that no moment in their future could ever possibly compare to moment like this.

In her own world, Sakura now knew a joy unlike any other she had experienced before, and she was finally assured that such joys would never let her go. To cliché the situation, it was the happiest day of her life.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

In another world, such joys and clichés were quietly being recorded onto video as a 'sleeping' Tomoyo gleefully watched the exchange with one machine-covered eye.

The first half of her wish had already come true.

* * *

_End, Chapter 4_


	37. The Dream, Revised IV

**Chapter 5 – Heavy Metal Concert  


* * *

**

_  
5-1: The Dream, Revised IV_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream. The same dream that she had had before, made of eternal darkness, of new books and new magic, and of an ever-present sense of fear. Tonight, she came into such a dream with the full awareness that anything could happen to her. This dream was no longer staying to any one singular pattern, as it had done originally, and so this time she would trust nothing. She needed to be ready for any and all eventualities, if she was to have any hope of enforcing her happy ending onto this barren excuse of a world.

The little white bird flew into her view before she could even begin to concentrate on her objective. Immediately she went on the defensive, her wand of magic at the ready, expecting that ever-present vortex of darkness to appear to her soon afterwards. But a long moment passed, and then several more of an even longer duration, before she realized that the bird before her was the only thing present here with her, and that there was no immediate danger to either her or it. With this in mind, she stepped back and admired its shining beauty and grace with a cheery grin, even as she rushed madly in front of it to guard it against the still-inevitable appearance of the dark vortex.

The paradox made itself apparent to her. Every time she tried to move in and protect the bird, she instead found herself pulling back and admiring it all the more. It was as if her body was no longer heeding her thoughts. It was as if she were watching herself from a distance. And then she was doing just that, as she found herself floating several meters up in the air, watching herself smile brightly at the little white bird on the ground before herself. She instinctively knew what was coming next.

The swirling blackness of the dark vortex appeared before the bird and her other self, just as the thought struck her that she was powerless like this. Once again she moved herself – or rather, her new, out-of-body self – to protect that bird, but found that she held absolutely no control over her movements in this new existence. Rather, she was left to simply watch, helpless to intervene as the little bird was yet again pulled into the dark abyss, never to be seen again.

Just like that, the little bird was inexplicably back to where it was before, standing in front of her other self to be admired by all. Even so, a powerful sense of loss continued to linger on within her, as though the bird had remained within the vortex's hold. That darkened, morbid feeling only increased itself two-fold when the bird was pulled unwillingly into the darkness for a second time. And then a third. A fourth. Each time the bird disappeared from her view, the sense of loss within her multiplied. It was getting to the point where she was almost to tears about it, if this place would even allow such a physical concept.

Without any type of warning, she was back in control of her actual body, still watching as the bird was sucked into nothingness for a seventh, excruciating time. Or eighth, or ninth – she wasn't really certain anymore, nor did she care to be. The purpose of the dream had made itself painfully obvious to her, at this point. It was trying to wear her out. It was trying to demoralize her, and it was easy enough to tell that the dream was succeeding in its efforts. Whether this was all of Clow Reed's design, or if he had merely interfered in the first few dreams for her benefit and was now leaving her to the whims of this dream's true creator, she couldn't really say. Had Clow Reed even been involved at all, or had it all just been some kind of grand illusion to lead her astray? Who could possibly wish for her to suffer like this?

She was certain of one thing, however. She had to get out. She needed to escape from this hell before the crushing depression of loss could threaten to fully overwhelm her. She didn't even need to see the bird being pulled into the darkness yet again as she made to escape from the dream once more. For one last time, and even as she broke through and away into a world of her own making, she was forced to experience the sense of losing something that was irreplaceable.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	38. Enchanting Melody

_5-2: Enchanting Melody_

Passing his black-leather music folder over to his left hand, he yet again played with the leather string tied around his neck. He was unused to the feel of anything other than cold silver on his skin, and the feel of a foreign fabric was annoying him something fierce. Not only that, but the string was still brand new and stiff, and very much needed to be worked in. It was this fact, above all else, that made Reios only more aware of how much the roughness of the fabric made his skin itch. Still, it was a minuscule price to pay in comparison to the ease of travel that it offered, the pun of it all being that he had used his own version of the Little card to shrink his katana down to the size of a pencil. It was nice, for once, to not have people staring at the big stick that was normally strapped to his back. This also made it easier to carry around his back-strapped flute bag, so it effectively killed two birds with one stone. Leave it to Syaoran to come up with the good ideas.

Responding to one more itch, he rubbed at the back of his neck for the umpteenth time that day. He worked a hand underneath the string as he continued to walk through the school campus, weaving through the various crowds and gatherings of students that were loitering about on their lunch break. He hoped that he could remember the way to where the school's music room was, from what little Tomoyo had been able to show him the previous week. The problem there was that he was already unsure of which way to go upon entering the front doors, short of remembering that the music room was at least on one of the upper floors. It was strange, since he had already been that way once already. Normally, he could fully remember how to go from point A to point B after just the first trip. Well, in a worst case scenario, he could always ask one of the local students for directions.

On the topic of students, he noticed a familiar glint of brown hair out of the corner of his right eye. At first, he missed his target due to no other familiar faces being about her, but he soon located Sakura sitting alone upon a stone bench that was set against the wall of the school. Her full attention was on a small hardcover book that she was reading, likely one of the books that Naoko had said she had given to Sakura for her birthday. Not having been noticed yet, Reios kept to the side as best he could as he made his approach, a slight hint of mischievousness coming to the forefront of his thoughts. A good-natured surprising was in order for her.

As he crept his way closer to his target, he wondered to himself if perhaps what she was reading was a translated version of a book that he had potentially read before. Though, by what few symbols he could identify on the spine of the cover, he didn't recognize the title at all. Stepping close enough to be able to see over the top of the cover, he noted that she was already a good halfway through the multitude of pages. Must have been a good read, at least. Based on this, he asked, "Not even a week, and already half done. Good book I... take it..?"

His brows furrowed inwards after she had failed to respond. It did not seem as though she was ignoring him, but more like she had honestly and completely failed to take heed of his arrival. He cleared his throat to emphasize his presence, but even that failed to gain her attention. He crossed his arms curiously, while flights of wild imagination tried to consider the small potential of there being a hidden power at work, which made him notice it.

There actually _was_ a hidden power at work.

He traced a thin black line trailing out from her right pocket, noting that it split apart halfway up her uniformed shirt to lead into both ears. Now he understood it. She couldn't hear him because she was listening to something. Well, there was always one way to fix that.

Stepping right up in front her, he waved his free hand right down in front of her book. This gained her attention for sure, with the hand that had completely surprised her rising up to wave happily beside a goofy-grinned face. She smiled in return and greeted him brightly, then paused for a moment as he re-crossed his arms, purposefully failing to return the gesture. She soon realized that she still had her earbuds on, and that she wouldn't have heard him even if he had actually tried to say something. She quickly removed them, making sure to pause the machine in her pocket while she was at it.

"Now, as I was saying. Good book?"

She giggled slightly, though it was mostly in embarrassment, "Sorry. Yeah, it's really good. Naoko chose them well. But anyway, what are you doing here?" As she asked, she noticed the black flute casing that was shoulder-strapped to his back, and assumed it had something to do with Mr. Akita, the music director.

His reply verified her theory, "After getting home last night, I received a voice mail on my phone from the school's music director. He was calling to confirm that I had gotten the part as the guest musician in their recital at the end of the month. I'm rather glad that he said yes, too, because I had already cleared most of my schedule for this. Mr. Akita was very much looking forward to a trio session, so I made sure not to disappoint. Because of all of this, I'm here to personally accept the invitation."

"Does Tomoyo know yet?" Sakura asked enthusiastically.

He shook his head, "While she had expected Mr. Akita to say yes, she has yet to be told that he actually _did_ say yes. I was hoping to find her here. Where is she, anyway? She's normally not more than three feet away from you."

Sakura had to pretty much ignore the reminder of Tomoyo's hobby-based obsessions in order to reply, "She's speaking with Mr. Akita, actually. I guess she got picked as the solo vocalist for the recital, after all."

Reios paced over to the nearby wall of the school building and leaned up against it, "Did she now? Well that just made my day. I was hoping she would get the part. She'll probably find out from him about my part now, too, which gives me one less thing to worry about. So, how about you? What's that you're listening to?"

Sakura pulled a round silver object from her pocket in reply. As he had suspected, it was a compact disc player. Seeing as it was only paused, the disc was still spinning, and as such he couldn't make out the words that were scrawled out upon it.

Fortunately, Sakura made note of that for him, "It's a collection of music that I got from Yamazaki on my birthday. It even has some performances with Tomoyo in them, from when she was in our elementary school's choir."

"Recorded songs featuring Tomoyo, huh? May I listen to one?" he asked.

"Of course!" she said, setting the disc player to a specific track before gladly handing it over, "This one is probably my most favorite of her songs."

Putting one earbud into place, he pressed the play button anxiously. Even if it was several years old, and pre-pubescent to boot, finally getting to hear Tomoyo in performance would greatly help him to better understand the vocalist that he would be working with. But when the song finally loaded up, he had to make a double take at the familiar intro. Placing the disc player into the crook of one arm, he began to rifle through his black folder with the other arm in search of a specific page.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, staring at the folder that had so engrossed his attention. But rather than answering right away, he instead pulled a certain page from inside the folder, placed it to the front, and immediately began humming along with the song that he was listening to. His finger began to trail along back and forth across the page that he had lifted, his own voice continually mimicking the vocal melody as he went. He grew silent again after a few seconds, smiling to himself.

"This is one of the songs that we'll be performing," he said simply, handing her the first page of the sheet music that he had been reading off of. At the top, printed in large, bold Roman lettering, was its name: The Song of the Night.

A small moment passed while Sakura worked at translating that text, after which she became decidedly ecstatic, "Seriously!? I haven't heard Tomoyo sing this song live in a _long_ time! This is going to be great!"

"I'm glad," Reios noted, "because from what I've read from the sheet music, it's a wonderful – if simplistic – piece. Hearing it for the first time only confirms that. Tomoyo must have performed it really well during one of the choir's practices, for Mr. Akita to want to use it. He had even told me, through his voice mail message, that he had even gone so far as to try and compose an original flute accompaniment for it just so I could perform alongside."

He then huffed out a small, amused puff of laughter, "Heh, Tomoyo will be happy now, too, because from the sounds of it, she's already practiced her heart out for this song."

He closed his eyes and continued to listen to the song, following along with the chords and scales of the flowing piano keys. He marked the fingerings of his flute by ear as he played along with the soaring melody of the vocals. With his attention fully to the song, his features took on a new level of calmness and peace that Sakura had never before seen on him, so accustomed as she was to his cock-sure and bright-eyed "warrior's charisma", as Tomoyo had recently termed it. As she watched a soft smile form up to emphasize his state of serenity, she noted a small tear rolling itself away from his right eye.

"What's wrong?" she asked him insistently, concerned about whatever reason it was that he was crying for.

Her voice broke him away from the state of contentment that he had placed himself in, finally forcing him to notice the tear that was now halfway down his cheek. Wiping it away, he put Sakura's concern to rest, "Nothing. Nothing at all. The song is just that beautiful, and I find that I am over-easily moved by beautiful songs. Tomoyo's voice only adds to it all. It is something I cannot wait to hear for myself. Just imagine what time and practice will have done to it." His eyes closed again as he ended his words, his attention span once again fully onto the harmonies playing into his ear.

After what seemed like several more minutes to him, the bells above the elementary school chimed in just as the song was nearing its end. The lunch break for the two partnered schools was over. A quiet clamor rose into the courtyard air as the mingling students packed up their gatherings and made their ways back into the building. Likewise, Reios collected the cords hanging from the disc player, handing them to Sakura after she had cleaned up the remainder of her lunch. Wiping away more of the dry stain that his tear had left behind, he stepped back slightly as Sakura rose up from the stone bench with her school bag in hand.

"Well, if it would suit you, I'll go with you as far as the school's music room, if you're headed that way," Reios offered, "I'm expected there, anyway." Sakura easily agreed, and took the lead as they made to follow the last group of students into the building. Reios again scratched unconsciously at the skin underneath the leather string around his neck as they passed through the windowed doorway.

"Where... _is_ the music room, anyway?" he asked.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	39. Small World After All

_5-3: Small World After All_

Tomoyo passed through the school gates and turned onto the familiar road that she had used for practically her entire life, heading for home after having completed yet another school day. Keeping pace beside her, Sakura kept her attention – not a hard thing to do in Tomoyo's case, considering the identity of the speaker – with an amusing story from the previous night.

"It was like Yukito wasn't even trying, but Kero sure was. It wasn't even an official contest, really, but it took Kero every bit of space he had just to keep up to how much Yukito was eating. And he _still_ ended up flying off to his room with a swollen stomach when it was all done, while Yukito was asking for thirds!"

Tomoyo giggled quietly, trying to imagine the sight. She really wanted to pity Kero for his loss, but she still couldn't help but laugh at her newly-developed mental image of a Kero with an abnormally oversized stomach, "That's too bad. I would have thought that he'd be the last one to give up in an eating contest. Oh?"

Tomoyo's sudden change of attention prompted Sakura to look back ahead to sight the source of that change. She found it to be a pair of familiar, dark-haired males, one of which was wearing the traditional Seijou High blazer jacket. The two were some ways up ahead of Tomoyo and herself, were walking in the same direction, and they seemed to be discussing something as they were going, though all that was soon to change.

"Ah! Eriol! Reios!" Sakura called out, dashing off to catch up to the pair. Tomoyo followed behind with a simpler, fast-paced walk, allowing herself a more easily maintained haste. Still, the two boys that were ahead of them turned and waited for the two girls, giving them an ample amount of time to catch up.

Sakura opened up her first question just as Tomoyo was coming into earshot of the words, "Are you two heading home?"

"We're on the way to my place, actually," Reios confirmed, "I wanted to practice for the recital, and Eriol has agreed to assist me in that. In fact, Eriol tells me that he approached Mr. Akita earlier this morning with a proposal that he be allowed to perform as the pianist for the recital, so as to perform alongside his friends. Mr. Akita seemed to like the idea of having more students in the recital, and after a sample performance, he readily took to the offer. It would seem that it's the three of us now," he finished, indicating himself, Eriol, and Tomoyo with a large, sweeping gesture.

This was old news for Tomoyo, as she had been briefed by Mr. Akita just after the choir's rehearsal session had ended for the day. For Sakura, on the other hand, it was an exciting bit of news on top of what she had already learned that morning from Reios. The exuberance in her voice detailed as much, "You're all going to be in the same recital?"

Eriol nodded affirmatively, "Yes. And to ensure that it is a flawless performance, I've agreed to practice with Reios every few nights until then, seeing as he owns enough electronic equipment to actually make a worthwhile effort out of it."

"May I join you?" Tomoyo inquired quickly, eager to get in some extra practice time.

Reios broke into a wide grin, "I was hoping you would ask that. Now I get to hear this wonderful voice that I keep getting told about. And to think that Mr. Akita has yet to let you perform in front of me. I've been anxious to listen to your singing ever since hearing a sampling of it from Sakura this morning."

Tomoyo did her best to downplay the quality that Reios was placing upon her, yet the slight blushing that she was having trouble hiding away made it difficult, to say the least. Fortunately for her, the focus of the conversation eventually managed to steer itself away from her vocal ability and more towards Reios asking Eriol various questions of his life in England. This "Q&A" session managed to maintain them all the way to the apartment complex where Reios currently resided.

At a first glance, the landscape, the buildings, as well as the other surrounding features, all seemed familiar to Sakura, much to her surprise. It did not take her very long to recall all of it from memory, however. There were certainly some new changes abound, for it had easily been a few years since the last time she had come here, but it was definitely the same place. Looking to Tomoyo for confirmation, to which the girl nodded in a silent reply, Sakura voiced, "This is the same apartment where Syaoran lived, while I was still collecting the cards."

"Oh? Does he still live here, now?" Reios asked.

Sakura worked her thoughts for a bit, but found it interesting to note that she had never really asked where Syaoran was currently quartered at, "I'm not sure where he living at now, actually. I haven't really thought to ask about it yet." She soon made a mental note to herself to inquire about that little detail at school tomorrow.

Taking to the stairwell, Reios soon had them depart onto the third floor. Another surprise for her, "Syaoran lived on this same floor, too."

Reios looked back to Sakura with a raised eyebrow, "Huh. Small world. Anyway, this is it."

They stopped at a door marked with the number "303", the one with the transliterated katakana reading of Reios's name inscribed neatly onto a plastic plate above the doorbell. Fishing through his pockets, he came up with the small iron key for the door, and with a quick flick of his wrist had the latch open. Yet before he could fully open the door to bid them enter, he noted that Sakura had wandered off further down the walkway. She was looking about her near aimlessly, almost as though she were searching for something that she had just lost.

"What is it?" Tomoyo asked her.

Without even turning, Sakura muttered simply, "Something feels familiar."

With their faces all showing various levels of confusion, they watched as Sakura made her way two doors down, to the one marked as "301". After a moment's hesitation, giving the group enough time to follow along and line up behind her, she rang the doorbell.

When the door opened to reply, Reios was the first one with a comment, "_Very _small world."

Syaoran was as equally surprised as they at having met so unexpectedly, "Sakura, why are you here? For that matter, why are _all_ of you here?"

While truthfully having been caught off guard, Sakura all the same managed to take in the moment as easily as she would have had she actually been expecting Syaoran to be behind that door. She flashed her cheerful smile at him, "We were going with Reios to listen to him practice for the school's choir recital, when I felt something familiar. I can't really explain it, but I followed that feeling over to here, and found you."

Reios crossed his arms in disbelief, "So all this time that you've been back, and the two of us have been neighbors? I didn't even notice."

"Neighbors?" Syaoran asked. Reios replied by displaying his room key from in between his fingers, showing him the apartment number stamped onto the label that hung from it.

"Three-zero-three," he said simply, a slightly amused smirk creeping onto his face.

"But how did you get your old apartment back, anyway?" Sakura asked, still curious as to how Syaoran was actually there.

"Well, with me wanting to return here for various reasons other than our spirit-finding expedition, my mother managed to re-secure this place for me until such a time came that I could financially support myself. With any luck, I'll have that set into motion within another month or two." His answer left Sakura wondering as to just how much influence Syaoran's mother – a powerful sorceress, and a prominent member of Hong Kong's nobility – actually had.

Having explained himself, Syaoran turned the conversation back to his original question, "So, you're rehearsing for the recital?"

Reios nodded, "That's right. At Eriol's agreement, we were going to run through the music selections a few times tonight. Then, as luck would have it, Tomoyo found us and offered to join in. Should make for a good 'jam session'."

While the English terminology for practicing managed to slightly stump them, they were next given something better to consider when Tomoyo clapped her hands together, "Oh! Syaoran, how about you come and listen in? If we had more of an audience to perform for, we could make it into our own private recital."

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Sakura exclaimed, and partly because it gave her an excuse to be with Syaoran, "Come on, let's go listen to them! Oh, but wait... you're probably getting ready to make dinner. It is starting to get into the evening." Syaoran couldn't help but smile gently at her sudden concern, even if such a concern was unwarranted. Some things just never changed.

"Actually, I'm living on my own now," he noted, "not like before where I had Wei to look after me. I can prepare meals for myself whenever I need them. Besides, I haven't heard Tomoyo's singing ever since I left here after the Nadeshiko Festival a few years ago. If it's all right, I'd like to accompany you."

"Really? Yay!" Sakura shouted excitedly, jumping up beside her love and taking up his left arm almost forcefully before he could react against it. The level of embarrassment that he was forced to endure as a result of it was almost inexcusable, if not for the fact that her being happy was making him happy in turn.

"Of course. The more the merrier," Reios told him, moving back to his own apartment to re-open it. Once again they all gathered around the door to await its opening, and this time Syaoran with them. Another click of the latch, and the door was unlocked for them once more. Stepping aside to allow them entry, Reios again found himself walking back out to them. Rather than a small stream of people coming in through the door as he had expected, instead they were just standing there, staring out into the town. His eyes glanced curiously from one guest to the next.

It took a few seconds for him to notice what it was that they were so caught up in. The clock tower's bells, the ones that were stationed atop the local elementary school, were chiming out with an odd, chaotic pattern, as opposed to the normal musical intonations that would mark the hours between eight and five. Realizing this, he then asked, "What's happening? Something with the clock tower?"

"Yeah, the bells are ringing," Syaoran replied.

_Well that's rather obvious_, Reios thought to himself. So he pressed the issue, "Okay, so those bells don't do that normally?"

"They would if it were on the hour," Syaoran told him, glancing at his watch, "but right now, it's not even at a quarter-to yet." Reios looked at his own watch, and verified it to be only twenty minutes to five. It was nowhere near to being on the hour.

"It is a summons," Eriol informed them, "An invitation to confront whatever is calling us. Apparently, it is content to quietly lay in wait, instead of wildly coming after us like the others of its kind have done."

"You don't mean...?" Sakura asked.

Eriol nodded to her unfinished question, "It's one of the spirits. It would seem that this one wants to beckon us to it, possibly so that it may fight on its own terms. If it knows of what has happened to its kin, then this would make all the more sense. It wants to assure itself of having the upper hand in the coming battle, _before_ we find it."

"Should we go back to the school, then?" she asked him.

To her surprise, Eriol shook his head, "No, not this time. If it wants to fight on a field of its own choosing, then we shouldn't allow it that chance. Not only that, but it would seem that Clow Reed encountered one of the seven spirits in a similar fashion to this, now that I recall it. He saw through the spirit's tricks, and was content to work around its defenses until he found a suitable weakness to exploit. He used patience against it in order to win, instead of allowing it the battlefield of its choice. We should also attempt to do the same. As long as we stay away from the elementary school's clock tower and the surrounding area, or are near there while with others, it will see no opportunity to strike."

Syaoran considered these words for a moment, "By 'others', you mean... anyone not currently here with us? People without magic?"

"Which means we'll have to go after it at night, once we're ready, when the campuses are both empty," Reios reasoned out. By this point, the bells were content to quiet themselves, which prompted another response from him, "Which suits me just fine, because it looks like our friend gave up on us, anyway. At any rate, let's stop standing around outside. Please, come in."

One by one they passed through the open door at Reios's request. All except Sakura, who was still unsure of whether they should be leaving such a dangerous menace alone. Taking into consideration of what the previous spirits had done in their maddened states, their was no telling what this newest one could be capable of if it were to be left alone for too long a time. This was especially true since they didn't know of its element yet. She wanted to trust in Eriol, to believe in what he said of the situation. She really did. But something inside of her didn't want to leave it all to the choice words of one person, even if that person was– no. This was Eriol she was thinking of. He wouldn't put them in a harmful situation if he could help it, and she knew that. Quieting the insecurities within her, she instead placed her full trust in him as she should have done originally.

Reios's insistent voice calling to her stirred her from her thoughts, "Don't worry about it. We'll deal with that thing tomorrow, so come inside. I'd much prefer a night of music over having to deal with a stressful world crisis, anyway."

Aside from his words, the small grin on his face told her to stop worrying. So instead of constantly thinking about something that she couldn't predict, she decided to do just that. With a nod of appreciation, she made her way into the apartment to enjoy the evening, allowing the door to close behind her with an audible click.

"Eriol, the keyboard and amp are in the office in the back, if you want to set those up. I'll get some extra chairs ready, and maybe see if I can find my old music stands," Reios told his guest, hoping to gain a helping hand in the setup process. He then cautioned, "Oh, just don't mind the mess in there. I haven't had a chance to clean up lately. Also, does anyone want anything to drink?"

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	40. Explanations Again

_5-4: Explanations Again_

"I'm home!" Sakura cried, though the words were out of her mouth before she could remember that her father wasn't supposed to be home for another three hours. She closed the door gently and proceeded to change out her footwear.

"Welcome back," came her father's voice from around the corner. Sakura had to run it through her mind a couple of times that it was really her father's voice that she had heard, before she could even begin to contemplate as to why he was even home. She finished changing out of her shoes before hurrying her way into the living room, there to find him lounging on the sofa and reading a rather thick book.

"Dad! I thought you were supposed to be at a school board meeting?" she asked, the sudden spark of surprise in her voice more than evident.

Fujitaka looked up from his book to answer her, "I was, but our meeting got pushed back to next week. It would seem that one of those attending has taken ill, and what we're supposed to discuss is something rather important. The chairman of the board doesn't want anyone missing when we put the topic onto the table."

"That's too bad," Sakura intoned quietly, but then remembered, "Oh, did you get the message that I left for Kero, then?"

"We both did, although Kerberos wasn't too happy about not being able to share your portion of the dinner that I didn't have to make. He should be upstairs still, probably playing one of his games again. If you're still hungry, though, there should be something left over in the refrigerator," he offered, nodding kindly when she declined him. He paused for a moment, then asked, "So about being out tonight... did it have something to do with these spirits that you're after? You haven't mentioned anything about those yet."

Time seemed to freeze all around her as his question made its way to her ears. How was it possible that he knew of her endeavors against those spirits? Not having wanted to worry her father about the dangers that she would be facing, she had purposefully chosen not to inform him of the new tasks that had been appointed to her. She had even convinced her brother to stay quiet on the matter, and then had gone on to keep him from getting overly involved, as well. The last thing that she wanted to do was place the burden of her and her friends' responsibilities onto her family.

And yet here was her father now asking about the very thing that she had kept hidden away from him. That he had somehow found out about her activities, and that she hadn't been the one to tell him, would make it seem like she was maliciously hiding the truth from him. Her father was the kindest, most gentlest person in the world, yet not once had she ever had the misfortune of experiencing him in the bad mood that he was surely to be in now. She was held in place with a fear of the inevitable as she considered all the possible implications of what he would think were lies directed solely at him, and she continually worked to try and find the words to explain away her situation.

He made note of her obvious hesitation – having finally decided to ask this question, he had then predicted this to be her initial response – and took to his feet. Sakura's head dropped down in shame as she prepared to accept due punishment, "It wasn't that I was trying to hide the truth from you... I just didn't want you to be worried."

His hands fell upon her shoulders gently, causing her to look up at him. Yet instead of finding the stern accusation that had been expected, she instead could only see the sincere warmth and affection that came with genuine parental concern. It was all she could do to hold back the emotions that were flooding to the forefront.

He started his words with a saddened smile, "It's okay, Kerberos told me everything. I know that you have responsibilities now, as one with great powers of magic must have, to say nothing of being the successor to the great Clow Reed that I've been told so much about. I also know of how strong your sense of justice is. Even if I were to worry overly much about you, I know that it wouldn't be enough to stop you from doing what you think you have to do. And that's only if I _did _want to try and stop you, though I do worry about you very much at times.

"Sakura, I trust in your ability to see these things through, just as everyone else around you surely does. But not even great and powerful sorcerers can do everything on their own. That is why such things as friends and family exist. I want to be there for you, as a father should, and I want you to always remember that. After all, you and Touya are all I have left in this world. You two can come to me for anything, because there is nothing I would not do for either of you."

There was nothing she could say to that, so she just hugged him tightly as she allowed a tear to wash down her face unseen. Then it was all she could do just to keep from openly crying, not wanting to worry her father further despite everything that had just been said. So instead, she sniffed back her tears, reigning in her emotions to regain control of herself. Breaking apart from her father, she gave him a small smile, half appreciative, half confident, a silent reply to tell him it would be all right. He accepted her unvoiced answer, and moved to sit back down on the couch.

Following up on her father's original question, Sakura got back to the topic, "About tonight, though... I actually went to watch a private rehearsal for our school choir's month-end recital. Tomoyo's going to be singing in a three-person performance, with Eriol on the piano, and Reios guest-performing on the flute, so we all went to Reios's apartment to listen to them practice."

Fujitaka recalled the name out of Kero's explanations from the previous week, and asked, "Reios... you mean the one that chased off the two students that Kerberos said were bothering you last week? He's from overseas, right?"

Sakura momentarily wondered at just how much Kero had actually told her father, but left it alone, "Yeah. He moved here just last month, and already he's a part of a local orchestral group. He was invited by the high school's music director as a guest musician, and got the part since he's friends with us."

Her father looked rather impressed with the man's accomplishments, "To be successful in a musical career for one so young, and in so short a time... that's quite the feat. Well, I haven't been able to truly relax or attend a social event in almost half a year. I think I'll go with you to this recital, if that's all right with you. Besides, I wouldn't mind meeting the man that did his part to protect my family. I should thank him properly for that."

"Sure, it'd be great to have you along. Oh, hey! Maybe we could invite my brother along, as well, then? And Yukito!" Sakura exclaimed excitedly, "We could make a full night out of it!"

Her father put his approval into the idea, "That sounds like a wonderful idea. I'll call them later about it, and see if they're available that day." Sakura practically jumped for joy, completely ecstatic over the festivities to come. Her anticipation over the constantly evolving plans for an evening of music and family was growing larger by the day, if not by the minute.

Calming herself back down, however, she soon enough said her good nights to her father as she made her way up the stairs towards her room. It had been a long day, and the excitement of listening to her favorite musicians for most of the evening had worn her out something fierce. Fortunately for her, she had managed to complete most of her homework at the school today, instead of leaving it for after she got home like she normally did, and thus would be able to afford a decent night of relaxation. With any luck, she could even finish reading another sizable portion of her current book. Then the idea came to her, as she was opening the door to her room, that she could also take up a soothing, hot bath to round out the night. That would just about make for the perfect ending to the day.

But instead of being able to read her book, or being able to gather up a change of clothes, she rather came upon a familiar, yellow creature that was staring at her from the desk on the far side of the room. It was strange that he would be in her room, and not in his own room playing video games, but it wasn't all that uncommon for him to be waiting on her for one reason or another (that usually had to do with dessert). The difference this time, however, was that he didn't look pleased to see her, as a platter of dessert was wont to do. If anything, he was quite the opposite. Kero, for a reason that Sakura couldn't possibly think to fathom, was looking very serious, _very_ perturbed, and it wasn't his usual "I didn't get any food!" face, either. But it was that last part, before anything else, had her honestly worried.

Kero brought his problem to the forefront before she could voice her own concerns, "Sakura. Are you aware of the clock tower bells that were ringing off of their normal time, today?"

Sakura nodded silently. Floating up into the air above him, never moving out of his seated pose, and without acknowledging her, Kero continued, "When those bells started to ring, I had a bad feeling about it. I went to investigate, and I expected you to be following along not too much after. But then I was there, waiting on you for well over twenty minutes. While I was there, _waiting_, I did my best to scout out the area. I could very much sense the presence of one of the spirits, if not so accurately its location or element. It would seem that this one was content to hide itself, even though it had already given away its position. I would have gone inside the school itself to better search out its location, but at the time, there were too many risks of being detected that I would have had to avoid."

Sakura turned to the side, thinking aloud, "So, the spirit really was at the school..."

The next thing she knew, Kero had flown up practically right in front of her face, "Then why weren't you there to stop it!?"

Surprise struck at her harshly, freezing up her response before she could even think of one. She had never seen Kero act in this way before. At the _very _most, she had seen a strong concern for her personal well being cause him to get overly heated, but never before had he become outright angry with her in this fashion.

Kero himself soon realized his own actions, and dropped his head with a sense of shame. After taking a few seconds to cool down, he spoke again, though this time he made certain to keep his voice moderated, "What if the spirit had decided to stop waiting, and instead took to a physical manifestation? The schools and surrounding areas could have been damaged considerably. Or worse yet, people could have been hurt!"

Sakura took her chance at a reply while she could still sneak one in, "But... Eriol told us that we could leave this one alone..."

An explanation with Eriol's name in it seemed not so much to satisfy the guardian's questions as it did to put him off guard. He floated back across the room and landed onto the edge of the desk, once again concerned of what place Eriol and his predecessor currently held in the grand scheme of things, "What does that Eriol know, this time, that we don't? What's he up to?"

A knocking at the door rudely disrupted his thoughts, "Now what?"

Sakura turned about and pulled the nearby door back open to admit in a familiar, deep-toned voice, "Do not be too hard on her, Kerberos. Her inaction today truly wasn't her fault or intention. Sakura, I hope you don't mind that I found my own way up here. At your father's allowance, of course. May I come in?"

"E-Eriol? Why are you..?" Sakura asked haltingly, curious as to why Eriol was here now, considering that they had just seen each other not even an hour ago, "Ah, sorry! Please, come in!"

"And I suppose it's all a part of your newest plan, then?" Kero retorted. He was purposefully choosing to not take kindly to Eriol's sudden intrusion, though it was mostly due to the sour mood that he was currently in, "Whatever that is."

"This is not of my doing, either," Eriol told him, taking Sakura's desk chair as she offered it, "for if it were, I would have told you by now. Keep in mind, I am no longer an adversary to you."

"So what's going on, then?" Sakura asked him, taking a seat for herself on her bed, "You must have something important to say, if you came all this way."

"Actually, I merely followed you home with the simple intent of keeping Kerberos from being too harsh on you," the sorcerer replied with a half-formed smile, a comment and expression that received a rather icy look from his point of topic, "That, and your father will be bringing in some rather delicious sweets in about ten minutes. While we are waiting, though, I suppose I could reveal my reasonings for what I said today. While I technically should wait until we are all gathered together, so as to explain this to everyone, I feel that as some of the few to have met Clow Reed personally, you two will be the only ones to have a chance at understanding my words anyway."

"Firstly, I would have you realize that while the source of my sorcery and power – as well as my mind and my memories – were inherited from my predecessor, all of this does not make me Clow Reed himself. My mind belongs to myself, and that is a fact that I find misconceived all too often. Often do I finding myself being compared to him by those within the arcane community that are aware of me, if I am not outright mistaken as him beforehand. If only you knew of how disturbing it feels to have one's own existence equally compared to that of a dead man."

Noticing that he was starting to ramble, Eriol forced himself back into his original lecture, "The point of this is that my personal opinion of Clow Reed, while one of great respect, reverence, and appreciation, has from the very start been comparable to how one would consider a being that is under the influence of a maddening psychosis. Ever have I considered his methods chaotic, his mind twisted, and his intentions warped. How his academic qualities and his devotion to life were both able to surpass the... 'stranger' aspects of his existence was a mystery even to him.

"However, do not hear my words incorrectly. Clow Reed never had anything but the best of intentions for those that he manipulated. Yet that is exactly what he did: he manipulated those around him, both in his time, and in our present day, all to achieve his goals. By this, I believe he has meant no harm, but only that he wanted what was best for us, and for his children – the Clow Cards. Despite all of this, though, I have come to understand that the past memories of his lifetime have yet to be fully revealed to me, and Clow Reed himself is at fault for this. Even my inherited ability to see into the future has eluded me, of late, though that is less from Clow Reed's interference and more due to the enemies that we now face."

"Your memories are not fully revealed? They're... sealed away, maybe? Like what you did to Kero and Yue?" Sakura asked slowly, not quite sure it she was even following along correctly. Though if it was true that Eriol's memories were no longer complete, it would help to explain why he had originally told her, those few years ago, that there would be no further surprises or tests in store for her. She had been wondering about that ever since the initial attack by the elven wind spirit.

"That is exactly the case," Eriol confirmed, "Clow likely designed it, for whatever purpose that only he could now possibly know, so that any memories of his lifetime that could help us in our endeavors now would only be revealed to me at the precise moment that they would become useless to us. As such, much of what I have explained about our foes up and to this point is based off of fragmented memories that may or may not be leading me in the correct direction. I can interpret a memory presented to me in whichever fashion I wish, at least until another one emerges later on to completely alter my view of the situation.

"In fact, this has happened several times already, not the least of which was our recent visit to the beach. I knew better than to allow us to be positioned near the primary element of an unchallenged spirit, and yet I failed to remark against it when the time finally came. Worse still was that I had allowed us to be separated, granting the water spirit an opening that almost cost at least one of us our lives. It is then ironic that my choosing to remain behind kept me safe from that mermaid's illusion magic, and allowed me to intercept and break her hold upon you all. But in the end, this does not forgive me of my lack of foresight, ignoring that my abilities in that department have been forcibly limited."

Eriol broke his gaze away from Sakura to stare at the floor momentarily, then made to hide his ashamed expression away from her entirely, "I fear that Clow has not only sealed his memories away from me, but has also altered my ability to make proper judgement calls. I apologize for the dangers that I've put you through."

Sakura, while glad that she had understood most of what he was getting at, was still confused at a certain aspect of Eriol's explanation, "No, what happened to us couldn't be helped. None of it was your fault. But then, none of that makes any kind of sense. Why would Clow seal away your memories, if they could help us against these spirits? Why make it so that you can't help us to understand these situations? Surely he wouldn't have put so much effort into ensuring the well-being of the cards, just to see us lose?"

Eriol nudged his glasses up, reassuming eye contact with his audience before continuing, "I don't believe that such is the case, here. As I said, Clow's intentions were never ill-fated, even if they were strange in method and or reason. It is most likely that he has prevented the use of these memories so that we might attempt to learn of their secrets for ourselves. He would prefer that the progenies of his power – that is, we who hold the magicks of the Sun, Moon, and Stars – fight under our own strength and intelligence, in order to continually prove ourselves worthy of the power that has been bestowed upon us. Apparently, his philosophy on 'living life to the fullest' extends into life-threatening crises such as ours."

Kero, however, wasn't buying it, "So how were you able to predict the spirit's actions today, then? If Clow Reed's memory is supposed to stay sealed away until it is useless to us, and you're having trouble predicting the future, how were you able to tell Sakura truthfully that it wouldn't begin its attack right at the start?"

Eriol turned his attention to the questioning guardian, "The memories that I hold are probably set within a foretelling-paradox spell, such as they will only be revealed to me when the spell knows that their use is no longer required. This you already know. I can only surmise, based on the memories revealed to me today, that knowing about the spirit's intentions and methods was not important to being able to defeat it. Knowing that, and using a bit of tactical sense, I erred on the side of caution. I suggested that we not be hasty in our assault, lest a preemptive strike lead us straight into a trap. We can now only hope that such a cautionary tactic is not just another error in judgement."

Kero crossed his arms, once again floating up into the air, "That would suggest that the memories released to you did indeed have some use, if they caused enough hesitation for you to not want to go after it. This completely contradicts your original theory."

"For once," Eriol returned, "I am not in control, as I always had been during our original encounters. Why these memories resurfaced as they did, when they did, and why they contradict my opinions, I do not truly know. To fully understand this, I would require the whole of Clow Reed's memories in order to understand his way of thought, but obviously his memories are as yet not fully revealed to me. And after realizing what has been done to me, I can never again be truthfully certain that I will one day have access to the entirety of his memories. As such, being able to understand his reasoning is completely impossible, so this is something that I will just have to ask you to trust me in. Believe me, it is not easy living with an amnesia that you know was forced upon you, even if these are someone else's memories."

While Sakura was glad that Eriol was completely on their side, something that she had never doubted to begin with, the fact that Eriol no longer knew everything suggested to her that their luck might have finally begun to run out. At the very least, she was unable to come up with anything that would favorably change the situation they now found themselves in. Thus, she asked of Eriol, "So then, when do we actually go after this spirit? It might leave us alone if we're careful, but we can't leave _it_ alone forever."

The sorcerer thought to himself for a moment, then looked back to them, "Tomorrow, during our lunch recess, I will go alone and scout out the clock tower. I will also search out the entirety of both school grounds if necessary. At the very minimum, it would be best if we at least knew where the spirit is residing. If we knew that, then we could better determine the direction of our attack. As well, its location may reveal some clues as to the identity of its element, since it has not fully revealed itself to us as of yet."

Another knocking at the door sounded out gently, cutting off any further potential for comments. Sakura instantly reacted to it as she trotted quickly to open the door, although Kero was already hovering excitedly above it, the entire conversation of the past several minutes already lost to him. Cracking the door open to take a look, Sakura soon swung it wide to admit her dessert-toting father, just as Eriol had predicted. At least it explained Kero's sudden switch into hyper mode.

Between the clamor of passing around plates and having to deal with Kero's interference, not a single one of them took notice to Eriol's actions as his left hand reached behind him to open the top drawer of Sakura's desk. With a mischievous smile, a facial expression born from the days that he had spent in Japan helping Sakura to convert the cards, he slipped an unmarked yen coin into that drawer, and closed it back up just in time for Sakura to hand him his plate. He accepted it graciously, with a sincere smile and kind word of thanks following shortly behind.

Hidden within the darkness of the drawer, the unmarked coin glowed softly and momentarily with the soft radiance of moonlight, before becoming lost within the various collections of objects held within.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	41. Mischievous Recon

_5-5: Mischievous Recon_

There was no one else at or near the back yard of the high school, and the distant soccer field that sat on the far side of the chain-link fence – the same soccer field that was situated in between the two neighboring schools – was also devoid of life. Just under half of the time allotted for the noon recess had already passed, so most of the students that had been in the area previously had already cleaned up and departed. All that was left for the majority of them was to loiter about the school's front courtyard and socialize. As such, none of the remaining four had to worry about being noticed when a needlessly loud voice carried out into the air.

"You're going to do _what_!?" Syaoran shouted out, causing the two girls that were standing behind him to cringe slightly. He wasn't sure if he liked Eriol's idea of making a solo effort, regardless of what Eriol thought he knew of the spirit. The retelling that they had all just heard from him about his lack of memories only served to worsen Syaoran's concerns.

Eriol pulled a card out from his pocket in order to begin the preparations for his mission, with his golden staff already resting in the crook of his left arm. Unfazed by Syaoran's clamoring, he offered up a more detailed analysis to his plan, "If I go in alone, the spirit will hopefully not see any reason to attack, as it will likely want to wait until all three of us are caught within whatever trap it has set. At the most, it will attempt to track my presence as I move about the campus. I see no other alternative for uncovering its exact location and element without fully triggering whatever it has in store for us."

"And how do you propose to do that?," Syaoran asked skeptically, his arms crossed, "You do realize that if a teacher catches you wandering around the elementary school, it's going to raise a good number of questions that we don't need to be dealing with."

To reply, Eriol held up his card for Syaoran and all to see: the Stealth. He explained, "This card is my replacement for the Shadow card of the original deck. It will allow me to wander about as I please, undetectable by those that lack the ability to magically enhance their visual sight."

Swinging his Sun Staff about and up into the air, he beckoned to the power of the Stealth card that was now spinning in place before him. A dim flaring of light ensued, causing the card's sealed form to dissipate into several tendrils of a purple-colored essence, as its power wound around and around in the air before them to create a cocoon-like shape. But when that essence finally dispersed, signifying the completion of the card's activation, nothing around them had changed at all, nor was Eriol as visually undetectable as he had said he would be.

"What happened?" Syaoran asked, looking suspiciously at Eriol, "Shouldn't you have turned invisible by now, or something?"

Eriol's face lit up with one of his famous, happy-as-can-be grins, "Perhaps. But I am not the one using the card's power, at the moment."

As Eriol spoke, Syaoran felt a finger tapping at his left shoulder. He turned about to look behind him, glancing back and forth between Sakura and Tomoyo. His questioning glance merely confused them, however, with the two girls wondering about what he was looking at them for. Himself confused, Syaoran turned back to Eriol for answers, realizing too little too late that the cards had physical forms. He jumped backwards with a start, half in shock, half in self-defense, and just barely managed to avoid knocking Sakura over while he was at it. In due process, he managed to trip over himself, and landed hard upon the ground with an audible thump.

Instead of seeing Eriol standing before him when he had turned back, Syaoran had rather seen a strange-looking female that had been standing just a bit too close to him for comfort. She was wrapped about in a dark-purple cloth suit, colored to match her light-purple tinted skin and thick, dual-braided purple hair. With a clothing design typical to that of a mythological ninja, the female card had everything from a loose-fitting, two-piece body suit tied together with a thin rope belt, and all the way to a black-as-night veil covering the majority of her face. Visible on that face was only the deep purple of her eyes to gauge her surroundings and company.

"It would seem that she has a streak of mischievousness to match her master," Syaoran noted testily, standing himself back up with a grunt.

"She has a good taste for clothing, though!" Tomoyo also noted, already recording the card's actions onto film. While no one else really took seriously to the comment, the card actually made a formal bow for the camera with a fist placed to her heart in salute.

Eriol chuckled slightly at the scene, though his humor was short lived, "Trivialities aside, however, I have a request to make of you, my dear Card. If you would, please."

Spinning around to face him, the card gave her master a curt nod, and vaporized herself back into an ethereal mist just as quickly as she had appeared. The mist swirled above them momentarily, before coalescing itself into a shell around Eriol's body. As the mist dissipated, that shell began to shrink smaller and smaller in size, as if it were being absorbed by Eriol's power, until only the sorcerer himself remained. The difference, however, was that his body was now partially transparent.

"That's amazing!" Sakura exclaimed excitedly, "And now no one will be able to see you, right?"

"Not quite," Eriol said, turning in the direction of the elementary school, "I have complete and instinctive control over the transparency of my body now, but I would need to will myself to be completely invisible to be able to run about undetected. Like so," he added, and then he was gone, his body having faded completely from existence. The sight of him suddenly vanishing from view was a bit unnerving for them, to say the least.

"I may or may not return before the lunch break ends. Do not wait up for me if I am late!" said his voice, growing ever distant as hidden footsteps took off down towards the gate that lead to the cordoned-off soccer field.

"Be careful!" Sakura called after him, even though she had no idea of whether he was even still there or not. She then turned back to her remaining friends, "Well, there's nothing left we can do here, at least until Eriol returns. What should we do while we wait?"

Tomoyo raised a finger up after a moment of thought, recalling a certain point, "I think Rika was going to wait for us under the tree in the front courtyard. It could take Eriol all of what's left of the recess to return back, so let's go wait with her."

An agreement was easily reached between the three, and they set off for the school's front courtyard to bide their time.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

Eriol had rounded the corner of the building and shot through the fence's open gate within seconds of departing, disappearing from Sakura's normal visual sight long before she had even thought to tell him to be careful. He was then already halfway across the soccer field by the time that she actually _had_ shouted to him. It would seem that his Stealth card also offered some physical enhancements, aside from the obvious, light-refracting capabilities that were associated with its name. He could feel that his athletic agility had increased three-fold, along with his enhanced movement speed. Abilities associated with that of a ninja, he supposed.

Coming up fast on the portion of the green, chain-link fence that separated the soccer field from the elementary school, he didn't even stop to consider traversing it's closed and locked gate. Instead, he launched himself up from the ground, impacting against the tall fence about halfway up its length. From there he vaulted upwards again, breaking across the top of the fence with plenty of clearance room to spare. With a deft swipe of his hand, he grabbed at the pipe that lined the top of the fence, swung himself about to the other side, and launched forward from the fence as though it were a springboard. All of this he performed in a single, fluidic motion, much to his delight. Such motions, as he had just performed them, would have shamed even a world-renowned gymnastics artist, and he very much intended to have some fun with it now.

His landing from the fifteen foot fence was hardly noticeable. The thin puff of dust that had been created by his landing was not even allowed the chance to settle before Eriol was already away again. He sprinted across the length of the tree-shaded concourse that lined the side of the elementary school, using his sixth sense to scan along the perimeter of the elementary school's primary building for an entry point. As luck would have it, he detected that there was an unlocked window nearby the clock tower that he could enter from, and altered his course to go and find it.

It was a window that was on the third floor the school, however, but this did not even come close to threatening the agile grace that Eriol now commanded. Coming into view of the window, he charged into the building at a slight angle. He then jumped hard into the air at about five meters out, struck hard against the second-floor wall of the school, and launched himself from that point towards a nearby tree. He grabbed at a thick branch, swinging up and over in a half-loop and launching himself even further up as he twirled himself gracefully around in mid-air. This fancy maneuver allowed him to snatch at the sill of the window that he was aiming for, and all without breaking a sweat. Though, with the speed of his actions, he ended up partially winding himself in the process as he impacted against the wall below it.

Regaining his composure took no more time than did his scaling of the soccer field's fence, and already he was pulling himself up. Pushing the window up wide open, he flung himself into the adjacent hallway and braced his inertia against the far wall to ease his entry. A perfectly executed acrobatics performance, with a (mostly) perfectly executed landing.

And that was where he unexpectedly came to a dead stop, now being under the scrutiny of detection as he was. A little girl that had been witness to the window flying open of its own free will stared at the point where Eriol had landed, her eyes flared wide open as she considered at the possibilities of whatever that loud, heavy thumping noise could have been. Even though he knew he was undetectable by normal eyes, Eriol couldn't help but feel frozen to his spot, unsure of how to react to this sudden surprise. So caught up he had been in his attempt at having fun with this infiltration mission, that he had completely failed to sense out the area for life signs. His carelessness here could potentially be the start of something that he wouldn't be able to reverse.

And yet to his total relief, the little girl took off running the way she had originally come, screaming her lungs out at a pitch that made his ears ring. He grinned to himself as he moved to place the window back to its closed position, allowing his magic to reveal to him the pending results of this incident. The girl would now claim it as some kind of haunted window, and his actions would later be attributed to some kind of urban legend. Such school topics – and at this school in particular, thanks to the efforts of Sakura and the old Clow Cards – were not all that uncommon by any means. It was all in good fun, though, and fun was what the next ten minutes were going to be all about.

With that problem solved, he brought his focus back to the task at hand and immediately sent his senses back out through the school. He already had a faint idea of which element it was that this spirit commanded, so there were a few choice locations that he currently suspected. To be certain of himself, however, he first had to check in on its original locale – the clock tower. Yet luck continued to be with him, as he immediately was able to discard the tower as its hiding spot. Lucky, because a fight up there would have been difficult and overly dangerous, considering the tight quarters that it would have provided.

After a while longer of mental scanning, he noticed a discrepancy in the auras being given off by normal life forms within the school, and began tracing it. Eventually it lead his mind's eye to the far end of the school grounds, to somewhere within the second building.

He was off again before his mind could even return to itself, racing through child-filled halls and down familiar stairwells, avoiding bodies and objects alike as they found him. Often he received disturbed glances in his direction as his increased speed caused a considerable gust of wind to follow along in his wake, yet he allowed the students to think of it as they would. It would give them something to talk about, at least.

Eriol soon took note that, even through all of this running, he wasn't even remotely short of breath yet. Reveling in his now-unmatched athletic prowess, he dared to cross through the elementary school's crowded inner courtyard, dodging past loiterers and game players alike. He even narrowly avoided deflecting away an errant soccer ball in the process. The ball flying his way had been a tempting target, to be sure, but he rushed onwards across the yard and towards his destination. There were more important things to be doing.

A split second decision saw him skidding to a stop as he changed his mind, using his momentum against the ground to launch himself up into the air and back the way he had come. He twirled overtop of an unsuspecting student in a wide arc, and intercepted a pass of the soccer ball that had been meant for that same student just as he landed. With a flourish of his feet and body, Eriol kicked the ball up above him, and launched himself up into a rolling wheel kick that soon had the soccer ball flying inhumanly fast into the net at the far side of the field. For as much distance as there was between Eriol and the net, the goalie didn't even see it coming.

Eriol rushed onwards towards the second building as he had originally intended, grinning to himself about how the students would now be talking about the self-scoring soccer ball for weeks. Of course, this was to say nothing of how Syaoran was going to react when news of this reached _his _ears, a thought that only made Eriol grin all the more because of it.

Upon breaching the main doors to the second building, his senses were forcibly overcome with the presence of an elemental spirit. His reasons for grinning were immediately forgotten, before such invasions of magic. Even though its power continued to remain repressed and hidden, the air was still thick with its putrefied essence. From here, it would be simple child's play to trace the spirit to its current lair. In fact, he could already sense its location – somewhere on the main floor that he currently occupied.

Another race through the school corridors finally saw him at his destination: the music room. Within that room, he could practically feel the spirit's darkened vibrations, and at this distance even its element was fairly obvious to him. But he could also sense that, in its current state, it was totally unprepared to attack him, even as alone as he was. Taking the calculated risk, and first checking for witnesses, he slid the door open just enough to admit himself in.

On the inside, though Eriol's mortal vision showed nothing wrong, his sixth sense was flaring with activity. The entire room around him was literally engulfed within the spirit's power, as its depraved magicks worked tirelessly to absorb any source of its own element into itself. The slight tugging beneath his shirt where his leather-bound magic key resided was proof enough of that. Yet this also meant that, while still remaining relatively unused, the spirit's power was nonetheless fully prepared for their inevitable battle. It, just like they had done, was merely biding its time.

Visually scanning his surroundings, he found that the back door to the music room's storage area had been swung wide open, and he could practically see the spirit's essence glowing out from within it. Eriol took special note of the storage room's contents, and that most of the instruments within that room were of the brass family. All of them were mostly metallic in composition. This did not bode well for the encounter that would happen later that night.

His scouting complete, Eriol turned to depart from the classroom and school. It would be too late, by the time he returned to the high school, to report back to Sakura and the others of his findings, but he could at least make it back in time to avoid having to play with his teacher's memories. His mission debriefing would just have to wait until they were all gathered up at the school gates later that evening.

Yet he stopped short of his departure as he felt an intrusion upon his mind, the feeling of imaginary fingers digging and sifting into his thoughts. Quickly he shut out whatever magic was at work, causing a tangible recoil in the energy field that had embedded itself within the room. He huffed a grunt of disbelief, that the spirit would actually try something like that against _him_. In return, Eriol released a fair portion of his own magic into the area, and allowed it to free-form about the room as it wished. This disrupted the spirit's energy fields by a good amount, causing no end of an emotional annoyance to pour forth from the storage room at the back of the classroom.

His mission now fully accomplished (with the added bonus of having had some fun along the way), he slipped back through the classroom door, checked for any potential witnesses, and was off again.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	42. Costume Party

_5-6a: Costume Party_

They approached the school gates under the guidance of the near-full moon, though Sakura was still a fair bit hesitant about going into the school at night. It had taken much goading on Syaoran's part to ensure her that there were no ghosts or the like haunting their new school, despite whatever stories their fellow students would often make up. He also found it hard to believe that she still continued to harbor such fears towards these things, after all this time, though he took a painful amount of care in not remarking about it. Regardless of any of this, though, he still wasn't sure as to whether or not she would turn tail and flee the moment they actually got there.

The closer they got to the gates, the more easily they could see through the darkness of the night, until they were able to make out two familiar silhouettes lying in wait for them. One was turned away from them, and was talking to the other who was leaning against the wall beside the school gate. The second, leaning figure was holding a long and slender silver object in its hands, which itself was easily visible due to the moonlight that was reflecting off of it. As they heard the footsteps heading in their direction, the two silhouetted friends broke off their discussion to welcome the newcomers.

"Sorry we're late," Sakura apologized, once she was within earshot of the two loiterers, "It took a bit of convincing in order to make my brother stay at home, once he learned that I had called Yukito to come help. Yue should be along once he's finished scouting the area."

Eriol waved it off casually, "It's not a problem."

Reios nodded in agreement before returning his attention to the flute that he was holding, "We're still waiting on Tomoyo, anyway. Said she would be late, herself, so I brought my flute along so as to have something to do while waiting. Something about a dressing van... whatever that means."

"Oh, I have a pretty good idea of 'what it means'," Syaoran muttered.

A small bit of fidgeting came from the school bag strapped to Sakura's back, admitting up a round, yellow head through its zipper. He scanned the faces of those present, then noticed that Reios was playing around with the finger keys on his flute.

"What'cha doing there?" he asked, "Practicing some kind of intonation spell?"

Reios turned his eyes up to stare at the diminutive guardian with a look of questioning disbelief, "What the... no? I'm practicing my fingerings. There's a piece for the recital that I'm having trouble with, and I'm trying to get it down. There's no magic involved here."

"Yeah, I suppose there wouldn't be," Kero remarked, "Being so magically immature, you couldn't possibly have the knowledge to manipulate magic through sound waves, anyway, let alone possess the raw magical energy to perform the necessary spells within the music itself."

Reios's stare of disbelief returned onto Kero, though it was accompanied, this time around, by a arched eyebrow, "And what's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Kero didn't even bother to reply, however, and instead opted to work his way out of the school bag to hover a ways above them, wanting to watch for any new arrivals.

Syaoran didn't let the subject drop, though, "I suppose you know how, then? And yet your singing ability is as terrible as your appetite."

"You trying to pick a fight, kid!?" Kero yelled back, instantly popping up right in front of Syaoran's face.

The two stood their ground after that, refusing to break the glare that each held on the other. Sakura backed away from Syaoran just in time to be out of range of the ensuing argument, choosing to take a spot beside the more quiet Reios and Eriol. The two boys took to the hint, and also chose not to make any plans to intervene on the clash that they were witnessing. Reios, in particular, opted instead to further practice his fingerings.

Leaving Syaoran and her worked-up guardian to their whiles (one would think that at least _one _of them would have grown out of it by now), Sakura turned to watch Reios at his practice. She closely eyed his fingers as they rose and fell upon the flute's keyholes, and with no distinguishable pattern that she could find. Letting her imagination fly, she pretended to hear the notes that they would play: at first slow and melodic, they picked up in pace as his fingers worked ever faster into trills and high-ranged pitches. He held one note to emphasize a point in the song for a few seconds, and then several. Then she noticed that he had actually stopped playing altogether, and was instead looking to a point somewhere up the street.

"Cut the chatter, someone's coming," he barked sharply, breaking up the on-going argument as if it had never existed. By the time a pair of headlights had appeared off in the distance, Kero was already tucked away within Sakura's school bag, and Syaoran had taken to leaning against the nearby stone wall, attempting to look as common as most loitering teenagers would around midnight.

Despite the vicious glare of the headlights, Sakura easily recognized the vehicle as it continued to close the distance, "Relax, it's just Tomoyo's van."

Sure enough, the yellow van that Tomoyo had recently taken to driving around for herself during her "re-capturing" sessions with Sakura pulled up to the front of the school, along with a black car that was following along closely behind it. Tomoyo made a quick exit from the driver's side door, checking up with the bodyguard that had accompanied her as a passenger before allowing her usual four guards to regroup into the black car and take their leave.

She watched the red taillights of the car fade off into the distance, then turned to face her friends, "Sorry to keep you all waiting. It took a little bit of extra overtime to finish them all."

"You look rather cheerful," Reios noted, slipping his flute away into the open-mouthed casing on his back as he spoke. And it was true, because Tomoyo was completely lit up in smiles. Her mood was in noticeably high spirits, which wasn't to say that she was normally _not_ this way, but the air about her was a bit more "high-spirited" than was usual. One could say that she was almost flamboyant in appearance.

"Of course!" was her overly cheerful reply, "The first time in almost two weeks since I've been able to have Sakura wear one of my costumes, and _years_ more since I've been able to record her wearing them into true action. This is what I live for! What's more, I even have costumes ready to go for the rest of you!"

"And readying outfits for all of us is what took you so long, I'm guessing?" Reios asked.

Tomoyo nodded enthusiastically, "I couldn't leave any of the outfits as just standard costumes. This is a special occasion, where the three Cardcaptors fight side by side in a coordinated attack. I had to make them look perfect for the event!"

"Well, I'm amazed that you had time for that and _still_ got your homework done," Reios commented, "but now that you're here, let's have a look."

Sakura could only stand back and watch nervously as the two talked to each other endlessly about the delicate intricacies of tailoring and fashion design, all the while being embarrassed about having to wear costumes again. Of course, she had worn them an untold number of times before, but it had always been a solo effort. Not many people, other than Tomoyo, and sometimes with Kero and Yue alongside, had ever seen her in a Daidouji-designer costume. Syaoran wouldn't be so much of a problem, perhaps, as she had fought beside him time and time again while wearing various costume designs. Eriol had even once admitted to watching her from afar during the majority of her trials, so he had supposedly watched those same scenes for himself. Then there was the newcomer Reios, who now seemed too intrigued by the notion of battle costumes to be a potential source of any further embarrassment.

So with all of this considered, why, then, did she suddenly feel like hiding away before Tomoyo could pull her into the dressing van?

Fortunately, it wasn't herself that was pulled into the fray, but instead it was the closest person within Tomoyo's reach. That person just happened to be Syaoran, as he soon found himself becoming helplessly caught within a fair-skinned iron grip. He was subsequently urged into the back of the van before he could even think to protest at all of the shoving, and what little protest that did manage to escape from him was muffled away by the slamming of the van's large back door. Still, Sakura knew that her time would come, and she stood there patiently, though ever nervous, as she awaited her turn.

In due course, during which time Yue had returned from his scouting flight, they had all had their share of time within the van. They went in wearing casual street clothing, and came out wearing colorful costumes worthy of the sorcerous fight that awaited them. Sakura, as the last to emerge from the van's confines (she had figured that Tomoyo would make her wait until last, for a dramatic effect), eyed each of her companions in turn, taking in the stunning artwork that Tomoyo had performed on them.

Syaoran had emerged from the van wearing a trimmed down variant of his original ceremonial robes, with the sleeves cut down to almost one-third of their original length. The bells that had once been present upon them were now each replaced with a pair of small, ornamental crescent moons. The most noticeable change with his robes was that the coloring was completely different, with the green cloth having been completely replaced with a light navy blue, and the golden trim along his sleeves and collar changed up for a darkened silver. The pants, normally a bright white, were also the same shade of dark silver. And while the symbol emblazoned onto the chest had remained the same (the one with the three white flames dancing against a field of black), she did take note that the yin-yang symbol that was normally draped down near his feet had been replaced with a shining, six-pointed star, itself cradled beside another crescent moon.

The sorcerous Eriol, like Syaoran, also wore variants of his original robes, though these presented up a considerably lessened amount of change by comparison. One of the major and defining difference from the original, was that his exotic-style hat of old had been completely removed, only to be replaced by a dark-blue, plainly looped glass circlet that had been set about his head. As well, the long, flowing cape that he had once sported had been trimmed back to the point of being non-existent, reaching only as far as the middle of his backside. The body-length robes, which were previously a pure black with stretches of blue trim, had been changed up for a darkened shade of blue and stretches of bright silver trim, respectively. The golden obi belt had also been replaced by a smaller silver length of cloth to match the silver-colored crescent moon that had been sewn onto the front of the robe.

With Reios, considering that he had never before been seen wearing any sort of battle costume, the transformation was a bit more awe-inspiring. He appeared out of the van showing an elegant white, loose-fitting pair of slacks that had a thin golden hue dyed into the cloth. They were tied up at the feet by thin white lengths of rope, and then at the waist by a wide, emerald-green silk belt, itself sporting golden embroidery along the top and bottom edges. His shirt, a silk-like dark blue, was partially covered up by a black shoulder guard on his right shoulder that was inlaid with spiraling golden vine embroidering. A wide, white sash with yet more golden embroidery ran across his chest from the other shoulder, tied down at both his front and back sides by the green silk belt. To top off what Tomoyo called the "prince of light" effect, he wore a green, crystal-like circlet about his head. She claimed it to be like a balancing effect to the one that Eriol wore, since they were effectively opposites of one another.

As for herself, Sakura had been placed in a light-blue knee-length skirted dress, set with shin-high leggings of a dark silvery color, both of which were balanced off with an overcoat of a darker shade of blue. It was buttoned from the top-down only halfway so as to show off the multiple colors. Silver trimming lined both the half-length sleeves of her overcoat and the tight-fitting collar of her dress, while a dark blue trim lined the sleeves of her ankle-length boots, which themselves were also the same color of light blue as her dress.

Setting her apart from the others was the distinction that she actually wore a full-sized cape: a two-piece run of cloth split straight down the middle, along her spine. It was colored a dull white on the inside, while the outer side sported a vivid, silky-sheen dark blue that was patterned with various constellations of small, golden stars. Four ornamental stars hung from each of the four corners of the divided cape, weighing it down slightly to keep it from fluttering overly much in the wind, while still allowing a heroic flow to grace the material.

Completing the look, as well as rounding out a theme that Tomoyo said she had created to match the newcomer Cardcaptors, was a symbolic, six-pointed silver star emblazoned onto Sakura's jacket just above the heart. In representation of the powers that Eriol and Reios wielded alongside her, a crescent moon was inset beneath the shining star, cradling it, while a blazing circular sun rose up from behind to protect it. The symbol for those that represented the power of the heavens, as Tomoyo had put it.

The end result of having put everyone into special designer clothing was a Tomoyo that was about ready to start a photo-shoot right there on the spot. Yet having forgotten her digital camera at home, she was forced to forgo this thought in favor of a more standard approach: her video camera. Within moments of Sakura appearing, Tomoyo had spirited herself away into the van to retrieve just that.

"Not that I'm arguing here, since I'm really liking the look," Reios started, while examining himself thoroughly, "but why are we wearing these now?"

"You _really_ have a lot to learn, don't you?" remarked the star-collar wearing Kero, flying out of the van alongside the now camera-wielding Tomoyo, "It's all about winning the battle against one's opponent! In addition to the physical and magical components of a battle, one must also be prepared for the _mental_ battle. Being visually prepared so as to psych out one's opponent is the best way to accomplish this, as was proven on countless occasions while Sakura was still capturing and then reincarnating the Clow Cards."

"Not only that," Tomoyo added, as she came back around the yellow van, "but every time Sakura has had to fight some strange phenomenon or crisis, she was always wearing something that I had made, and she had always come back safe. It is for this reason, primarily, that I will continue to make clothes for her to wear. Of course, it just wouldn't be the same anymore, if our newest additions did not come back safe and sound alongside her. Therefore, I have designed outfits for the entire team this time."

Reios nodded sagely in agreement, believing Tomoyo's reasoning to be sound. It was a team effort, after all. What good was a coordinated effort if not everyone was in on it?

By that reasoning, however, he came to have a _slight_ problem with it, "All right, so where's yours, then?"

Tomoyo looked to him in confusion, "My what?"

"Your costume."

Tomoyo was immediately taken aback, and found herself unable to come up with a direct or proper response to a question that she had never honestly considered possible before. Reios, on the other hand, could pretty much guess as to her reasoning for hesitating, taking what little insight he could from the discussions and talks he had had with her in the past. He reasoned that she was being reclusive to her feelings. She was instead preferring that events run through without any interference, except for when she saw an opportunity to improve a situation for others. She had effectively told him as much that night on the ocean cliff.

From this, he knew that she might try to avoid the question if given the chance, so he pressed his case, "You pretty much said it yourself, you know? 'We're all a team now'. If you think about it, it doesn't make sense to leave one member out of the group, even if their participation in the real action is minimal at best. Besides, as one who would chronicle the movements and battles of Sakura and her companions, you yourself will one day require recognition for your efforts. It wouldn't do very well for everyone to be wearing all these fancy outfits, only to have the camera turn around and record someone wearing simplistic street clothes, now would it?"

Reios crossed his arms at her, taking up a stance and stare that was demanding a response out of her. She, in turn, felt compelled to give one, but she found that she could only come up with varying replies that she knew would not satisfy him, "But then... I... I'm only a 'behind-the-scenes' person... I would... I'm not that important."

"What are you saying!?" Sakura asked incredulously. Not that important!? She found herself unable to believe that Tomoyo had just called herself that, "Tomoyo, he's right! It's high time that you got some credit for all the work you put into the team!"

To Tomoyo's dismay, Syaoran and Eriol were both nodding in complete agreement. They were backing her into a corner that she did not want to be in, "No, but... I do my best to make costumes just for y-... for everyone _else_. I don't think that I could put the same effort into one for myself. That's just not why I make them..."

While Tomoyo was being fully hesitant for completely different reasons, Sakura could only see that her friend was becoming disheartened by a sudden lack of faith in her own skill. She stepped up and took Tomoyo's hands in her own, "Tomoyo, look at us. These clothes that you've made for everyone, they are wonderful. Beautiful even. If you can do that for all of us, then I _know_ that you can create something for yourself that would make you look just as wonderful and beautiful!"

"I couldn't have put it better myself," Reios commented, grinning roguishly to himself at the look on Tomoyo's face. Bulls-eye.

To everyone else, Tomoyo seemed to be having an epiphany, with her face having drawn blank in a sudden realization. The truth, however, was that her inner mind was working hard at trying to comprehend the words that she had just heard. Words that she could not believe had just come from Sakura's mouth – wonderful; beautiful. Words that had been used to describe Tomoyo herself, no less. Her heart felt like it wanted to jump out of her chest, and it would have gladly done so if not for the fact that she had to continually replay those words in her mind just to believe in their existence. Her deliberately chosen train of thought was leaving very little room for such emotional extremes.

She eventually brought herself back to reality, as an idea for a new set of costumes struck at her, "Then, I will have to do my best and make us _all_ costumes, next time."

With Sakura seemingly satisfied that the situation had been settled, Syaoran made to turn their collective attention to the resident intellectual, "Now that that's been dealt with... did you learn anything from your search today?"

Moving to face the closed school gates, Eriol focused his gaze onto its simplistic locking mechanism as he made his reply, "I managed to locate the room where the spirit has housed itself. It has taken lodging within the school's music room, and not the clock tower as we had originally suspected. It lies in wait for us there, patiently. Also, as I suspected it would, it had placed a trap for us to encounter. Though I hope to have already taken care of that aspect during my scouting, it may have placed another since my departure. Otherwise, all that should remain is the spirit itself, and whatever self-defensive abilities it may have.

"Finally, it would seem that it has become far more corrupted, mentally, than any of its siblings thus far, which would explain the type of trap that I attempted to dispel. It was a dampening field meant to overwhelm the senses and render anyone with a magical sense unconscious. It is likely that my Stealth card protected me from the bulk of the effects while I was under its power, or else I would not be here right now.

"In the end, the spirit does not seek direct confrontation, if it can be at all helped. This suggests that it is not attempting to find release from its dark master, as the others had done by offering themselves up as targets. Instead, it seeks full accomplishment of its master's desires. I fear we may have to forcibly split its body and soul in order to stop it, which will require its full defeat. This route, of course, will run the risk of outright destroying it if we are not careful."

He turned his hand before the gate's keyhole, as if turning an actual key into the lock. An audible click resounded from inside the mechanisms of the gate to allow it to swing open slowly, metal hinges grating upon metal bars. The seven of them slipped through and into the school courtyard silently as the gate slowly started to turn back on itself, the black bars swinging shut behind them as Eriol exacted more of his power against it.

They made a direct line for the secondary building, and already they could sense the spirit's presence located within. They rushed up to the first available window, and with Reios using his katana to wedge it open, they soon found themselves stalking quietly down the emptied and shadowed corridor towards the music room.

"I-I... I'm not liking this already," Sakura mumbled. The darkness surrounding her was already giving her the creeps. She had never grown out of her dislike for ghosts and other supernatural phenomena, this much had always been obvious to everyone. That she still held so strongly to such fears, however, and especially at such a crucial moment, now _that _was something of a slight worry.

"Besides the spirit's power, I sense nothing worthy of notice anywhere within the campus grounds," Eriol revealed to them, "and I am sure Syaoran has told you before that this school is quite far from being the household for ghosts and spirits that urban legend places it to be."

Reios nodded in agreement, "Yeah, take it easy. There's nothing here, visibly or otherwise. Besides, even if there were, I'm sure that either of us," he indicated Syaoran and himself, "would have sliced it up by now."

She looked hesitantly to Syaoran, prompting him to give her a confident grin, "He's right. Even if there were something here, I wouldn't let it near you."

She wasn't sure that all the reaffirmations about the lack of a paranormal presence were having any positive effects on her nerves, but she was still quite glad for all of the assurances that they were making. So she told them as much, "Thanks, everyone. I'll try to do my part, too." She also flashed a sincere grin at them, to show her growing confidence.

Reios, who was at the front of the pack, quickly held up his fist to demand silence, stopping everyone in their tracks. They could all feel it quite clearly now: the spirit's decrepit power lingering in the air. The same dark wave of energy that had accompanied the awakening of all of the spirits before it, except this one was drifting out slowly from one of the nearby classrooms, calmly, as if it were still half-asleep within its own delusions and clouded judgement. They slowed their approach as a result, proceeding with great care and caution towards the music room's doors.


	43. Concert Night

_5-6b: Concert Night_

Reios, who was at the front of the pack, quickly held up his fist to demand silence, stopping everyone in their tracks. They could all feel it quite clearly now: the spirit's decrepit power lingering in the air. The same dark wave of energy that had accompanied the awakening of all of the spirits before it, except this one was drifting out slowly from one of the nearby classrooms, calmly, as if it were still half-asleep within its own delusions and clouded judgement. They slowed their approach as a result, proceeding with great care and caution towards the music room's doors.

Reios trotted ahead of the group silently, taking up a position on the far side of the door while Eriol and Syaoran took point just in front of it. He held up three fingers to time their entry, grasping the handle of the door as he did so. With an affirming nod from Sakura, he counted down the fingers on his hand. On the zero, he shot the door wide open, darting into the room with his katana fully drawn to meet any threat that would oppose him. He, along with Syaoran and Eriol whom both quickly followed behind, immediately found themselves being overwhelmed by a thick, polluted cloud of magic in the air. It was an aura that, strangely enough, granted them the ability to see through the darkness of the night. It was also an aura that made them all feel like they had just gone three days without sleep.

Eriol eyed the magic-induced scenery around him carefully, "The essence of life itself has been literally altered within the confines of this room. It seems that my earlier attempts at disarming the trap may have failed. We will not be able to linger here for long without suffering considerable damage to our own powers, and soon after that our very souls. I fear that such contamination will also only serve to bolster the spirit's capabilities, as well. Whatever we do, we must be quick."

Whether by his words, by their arrival, or because the spirit had simply awaited this very moment, they were now able to feel its power directly. It felt close enough that they should have been able to see it, though its actual whereabouts as yet remained concealed to them. By this point, Reios had already reverted his katana to its diminutive form in favor of the more useful magical sword, and was standing in between Sakura and Eriol as they all waited for the spirit to make the next move.

A large crashing came from within the storage area at the far end of the classroom, marking that next move as a silver trumpet floating out from there and into plain view. Acting as though it had just spotted the presence of others within the room, it came to a sharp stop only a few feet past the storeroom's doorway, using its bell to face and examine each person present. Those with the required sixth sense could feel the slight presence of magic washing over them, as the instrument's hidden eyes searched each of them thoroughly for any sign of a threat.

"Remain on your guard," Eriol cautioned them quietly, his eyes deadlocked onto their "foe" even as it started to float aimlessly about the room, "There is a strong magnetic field at work in this room, and it is manipulating that trumpet's movements."

Kero chimed in, "I don't think that's a normal trumpet..."

The bell of the trumpet turned sharply to face directly towards Eriol, though this time with a reddish glow emanating out from within it. The sudden change in the instrument's attitude left Eriol with no room for a reaction, instead only allowing him to stare down into its bell as it erupted out its magic in a stream of searing energy.

Yue, the ever suspecting one of the group, raised his own energy up in front of them just as the instrument fired. His resultant energy shield managed to deflect and dispel the attack after a significant effort, but it had still been a close save, by any standard. Because of how much effort Yue had required to intervene, Eriol easily concluded that he didn't care to know of what such a concentrated blast of magic would have done to him.

In response to such defiance, yet more instruments began to fly their way out of the storage room. With them came along all sorts of musically-inclined odds and ends, all of which were composed of a metallic substance. As more and more objects flew into the room, they began to bind themselves around the original trumpet, morphing and reshaping themselves into a single, massive blob of gray. They all melted down into a singular entity, right on the spot. And as the last particles of metallic scraps departed from the back room, the blob of metal before them began to reshape itself into a more recognizable form, by growing humanoid features to mimic those before it.

"I've been to heavy metal gigs before, but this is just too much," Reios commented.

Sakura took a cautious step back from their still-hovering, shape shifting opponent, "I've never dealt with anything made of metal before. What do we do?"

"No, we have!" Syaoran corrected her, "Remember, the fence behind the school! It was one of Eriol's tricks!"

She looked at him for a moment, trying to recall, until she did. Awareness striking her, she pulled a card away from her deck and wasted no time in activating it, "Rot away the spirit's physical form! Mist!"

Magical wisps of energy escaped from the glowing card above her, soon turning into waves of green cloud as the card's power wholly enveloped the fully-formed metallic humanoid before them. A grinding sound, like that of metal gears scraping against themselves, shot out from the spirit's form as a sort of shriek, a grating cry in response to the attack that it was now enduring. Its pain was more audible than visible, yet the Mist was still having a notably visible effect on the spirit's strength, as spots of rust and decay began to form all along the spirit's body. The card was slowly, but surely, eating away at the spirit's defenses.

The screeching of grinding gears increased by two-fold, as the spirit first doubled up into itself in mid-air, then shot its four limb-like protrusions wide apart to release a visible wave of black energy. The resulting explosion of spiritual magic, while seemingly harmless to any material objects, was more than enough to sweep away the Mist's acidic vapors. Its energy expended, the card returned to its sealed form and floated quietly back into Sakura's hand.

Eriol's face took on a full frown of worry, "As I thought. It is a golem, a type of creature that is mostly feral in nature. Its kind are generally resistant to magical weaves, having been originally constructed by those same weaves. That it is a golem would also help to explain its more covert and deceptive tactics, as compared to the outright assaults conceived of by its brethren. It isn't so much as mentally corrupted as I had originally surmised, but rather is just completely compliant to its master's wishes, and thus does not desire to be freed. It's kind only have a minimal intelligence, which is making it all the more easier to control. Unlike before, there is very little that we can do here to help save this one's mind.

"Due to it's natural resistance to magic, it will be too powerful for some of the minor cards to handle. We will have to use one of the stronger attack cards, or even one of the elemental cards, in order to subdue this creature. I will also have to apologize later for putting us into this situation."

"Before all that, how about we try steel versus steel?" Reios offered, shooting a meaningful grin to Syaoran as he spoke. Readying an elemental charm, Syaoran watched carefully for a chance to strike while Reios shot madly across the classroom, dodging one of the golem's arms – rather, its arm had turned into something of a destructive-looking, sword-like appendage – as he waited for the cue to act.

"Raitei, shôrai!" came the chant, allowing the streams of lightning to loose from his sword and fly straight towards Reios. Surprised at not being the target, the golem recoiled momentarily to watch the proceedings. It continued to remain blissfully unaware of the doom that awaited it, even once the lightning had finished enveloping itself around Reios's body.

The lightning coursed through and around him, making its way through his body until it had collected the entirety of its magic into his crystal-inset sword. With the golem hesitating as it was, Reios was provided with the perfect opportunity to wind back and strike through it with a simple, yet effective, slicing attack. The silver sword cut clean through the grayish liquid torso of the golem's form, sending arcing waves of electricity racing into the two separated halves.

Yet the elemental attack lasted only for mere moments, as the lower half of the golem's body stopped its previous levitating to ground itself, dispersing the lightning effortlessly. The upper portion of the golem's body soon rejoined with its lower half, dispersing the remaining arcs of electricity with the same tactic. Enraged, it spun about on the swordsman that had gotten behind it, flailing at him with both sword-like appendages and cutting through any desk or chair that had the misfortune of not being placed behind Reios's defensive stance. It was all Reios could do, after that, to keep his guard up as he circled his way around the golem, attempting to make a hasty retreat back to the others.

Waiting for the right moment, Syaoran leapt into the fray and dismembered the golem's left arm with a decisive uppercut strike. The advantage given, Reios ducked around to the golem's backside, spinning about with a flourish to again slice its humanoid form in half as he finalized his retreat. Turning back after regrouping to observe their handiwork, the two watched as all their efforts turned into nothing more than wasted time. The golem's three separated body parts reconnected themselves together with as much ease as they had the first time.

"It will be immune to lightning, due to its composition. It looks like physical attacks will have no bearing on it, too," Eriol noted, "We will have to risk the chance of destroying it by using one of the elemental cards, though we must be careful of which one to choose. This golem's destructive aura will take any offensive opportunity we have away from us if we do not act soon."

Duly prompted, Sakura watched the golem's stance and movements carefully, even as she withdrew into her thoughts. She searched back into her past, thinking hard upon all of the training that she had gone through with her cards. She thought back to all of the encounters that she had endued, and of what cards and elements that she had used to stop them. She knew, from personal experience, that a metal opponent had to be completely eradicated in order to stop it, or it would just reforge itself. Her mind flew through all the various types of cards that she held, hoping to come across one that would accomplish just that.

The water-aligned Mist, even though it was their obvious best bet against this spirit's element, was just not strong enough to do the job. She reasoned that Earthy would be useless, since metal was mined out of the ground, but that also meant that Wood might have a chance. But then, the avatar of wood was far too kind to rope down such an aggressive opponent long enough to drain its power, a trait that Windy also shared. That rendered those two cards useless automatically. Storm and Thunder, her other attack cards, would also use the already ruled-out wind and thunder elements against it. Storm would only bind down the spirit, anyway, and would just end up making even an even greater mess out of the classroom, besides. Then there was Watery, the primary attribute of Mist, though she just as soon reasoned that water would not be able to even budge such a heavy, metallic object. Thus, through the process of elimination, there was only one element left to her disposal.

She struck without warning. Throwing the card into the air, she invoked its power, "Firey!"

The winged avatar of flames formed before its mistress as it was beckoned, already eyeing down its opposition with a gaze meant to melt even the strongest of metals. Curling back its arms, it then shot those arms forth to release a stream of molten flame against the golem. The card's facial features hardened as it focused the point of its attack as much as possible, trying to intensify the attack's duration and damage potential. After a few moments, it pulled back to examine its efforts, and felt a small satisfaction at the golem's resulting condition.

Off balance by a considerable amount, the golem's physical form looked as though it were unable to remain upright. It was even having trouble maintaining its ability of levitation. Rather, it was struggling hard just to maintain its cohesion as several droplets of steaming liquid metal fell away from its body and wobbling arms. Landing against the ground and nearby desks, those droplets burned large, gaping holes through whatever they touched before hardening into mounds of steaming, gray slag.

"Hah, it worked!" Kero cried triumphantly, pumping one of his paws into the air, "That's my Cardcaptor! Hit him again!"

Syaoran summoned up his own elemental flame in response to Sakura's success, sending a second stream of searing heat into the center of the classroom. Kero swiftly followed up with his own breath of flame to sweeten the deal, merging his power with the kid's to envelop the golem within a raging inferno that was almost as strong as Sakura's had been. And while the added attacks didn't seem to be having any further effects upon the spirit's internal strength, they all thought that they could see an increase in the amount of "sweat" that it was losing.

All seemed to be going well, with Eriol and Reios lining up their own Firey cards in order to finish it off, until it screeched out once more. Loudly. All around them, desks and chairs began to shuffle and rattle as the aluminum-forged limbs and legs of any nearby furniture suddenly broke away from their wooden attachments, tearing recklessly through the room and merging with the spirit's body. Even the piping and support beams from within the very building itself ripped their way clean through the dry walling of the classroom's perimeter and ceiling to become as one with the deformed creature. Tomoyo's video camera also decided that it wanted to leave her grasp, though her tightened grip upon the machine's hand strap saved her from any unfortunate losses.

In the end, the room was left in a state of utter disarray. Piles of wood and plastic laid cluttered all around them, and not a single scrap of metal could be seen anywhere within the room. Or without, for that matter. The golem's form also seemed to have rejuvenated somewhat, with its balance having recovered alongside a notable restoration in its body mass. Yet this did not seem to be enough to satisfy it, and to remedy such a problem, it screeched at them yet again.

"He-hey! _Hey_!!" Reios stuttered, but it was too late. Pulled away from the still-open casing strapped to his back, his silver flute pulled free of its confinement and flew straight into the spirit's awaiting form. It was absorbed just as easily as had been all the other instruments and objects around them, and just like that it was gone. Then, to add insult to injury, the spirit screeched a third time, beckoning yet more material to bolster its power. Another jerking took Reios by surprise, as his shrunken katana attempted to free itself of its stringed bondage. Yet tied around his neck as it was, the pencil-like sword merely floated before his face, pulling tightly against its bindings. He quickly stuffed it beneath his shirt to keep it in its place.

"You already took my family's pride, and I'll be damned if I let you take my own!" he cried at it viciously, and in English no less, though the golem failed to make any kind of response regardless of his choice of language.

"It would seem that we have found the spirit's true weakness," Eriol noted again, watching the spirit's movements carefully, "but with this atmosphere eating slowly away at our magic, it was not enough to put it down before it could absorb more of its own element. I think that we'll need an energy output about five times as powerful as what Sakura just tried, if we wish to be successful."

"_Five_ _times_!?" Syaoran shouted, "With this damned aura around us, we'd be lucky to put out _three_ times her power if all _six_ of us attacked it!"

"I am aware of this. It is my fault that we allowed the spirit to grow as strong as it has. I am sorry."

"Sorry this, sorry that, just shut up already! There was nothing more you could have done!" Reios snapped at Eriol harshly, "Besides, I might have a way out of this."

Interested to Reios's idea as much as they were concerned by the excessively hard tone of his voice, they all turned to find him examining one of his cards. He turned it about to allow them to view it for themselves. Of course, it ended up being one of the changed cards – the Staff.

"It explained to me on my first night with my cards, through the Mirror Card, that it has the power to amplify any magical source of my choosing by an exponential amount. If we could use this, I could potentially channel enough energy into one of us – Sakura for example – to completely obliterate this demon. The only downside is that the card would require an equal amount of energy drawn out of myself."

Syaoran shook his head, "That much power would definitely be enough, but there's no way you'd be able to support, or even survive, an _exponentially_ increased magical drain."

"What if you combine your strengths, like what we did when Eriol tried to fight me?" Sakura countered, "If you all put your energies into the card, you could lift some of the burden from him! Maybe it would be just enough to make it manageable?"

"Let's give it a shot then, before this one-man band thinks to do something else," Reios decided, throwing his card up above him without a second thought, "Staff!"

The card dispersed its power immediately, enveloping the sword that had beckoned to it within a blue mist. The card's power soon infused itself into that sword, dissolving the mist to reveal what could only be described as a wizard's staff. The length of the staff was comprised of a long, gnarled stretch of white birch, twisted in design yet smooth to the touch. It grew thicker as it grew taller, until at the head it formed out into a perfectly symmetrical, four-pronged claw. Each separate claw was tipped with colored gems to represent the four primary elements, and within the four claws – grown to almost three times its true-form size – rested the crystal orb that was normally set into the pommel of the original sword.

Without having to be told, everyone around him took into hand and paw of a portion of the staff's base, focusing the bulk of their power into it. As ready as he was ever going to be, Reios looked over to ensure that Sakura and her Firey were also ready. Receiving a determined nod from the two, he closed his eyes to focus his own energy upon the staff. Yet being unsure of what to actually do, however, he just mentally moved that direction of focus. He willed his intent upon the Staff, and "ordered" it to direct all of the raw magic gathered into it directly at Sakura.

All at once he could feel the drain upon his being as the Staff's power took effect. He could also notice the flow of energy from the others around him as their own energies entered the Staff, and yet, as was to be expected, the greatest burden was still his own. From the strain of having to maintain such a high amount of power, it was all he could do just to remain conscious. The thought of having to pick himself up off of the ground yet again was the only thing that allowed him to remain standing, after that. Thoughts of sweet, rewarding vengeance then gave him just enough strength to glare at the demon with a seething rage.

At the same time, Sakura could also feel the transfer of power, except that hers was more of an exhilarating _infusion _of magical strength. She could feel the vitality and spiritual flow of all of her friends as the Staff directed that strength into her own well of energy. With their combined powers now augmenting her being, it felt as if she could have summoned and controlled all of her cards at once. The thought of it was extremely tempting, to allow her magical friends the chance to experience the open air all at the same time. But she, sadly, had a more important task to attend to.

Giving the silent command to her card, the Firey acted instinctively. Once again it gathered its elemental flame to itself, focusing its powers for its last, decisive attack against the golem before it. Through the link of power with its master, it could feel its own strength increasing to the point where it could sense any form of fire throughout the world. It had a total and unprecedented control over all that existed within its elemental domain, and it swiftly brought this total power to the full advantage of its master's will.

Without even having to think about it, as such was the extent of its newfound power, the Firey had formed before itself an enormous ball of rippling liquid flame, and it was placing the entirety of its near-infinite power into that miniature sun. The temperature around the spherical lava was so great that it soon ignited the atmosphere in its immediate vicinity, until all anyone could see was a giant plume of flame that was dancing and writhing in front of them. So powerful were the waves of heat and flame being given off by it, that even the golem could not find a way to approach and put a stop to the Firey's efforts. Yet even when the flames and light had grown to what should have been its highest possible intensity, it continued to grow further still. It was ever increasing in its size and volatility, working tirelessly to match its creator's potential.

And when both card and mistress could no longer maintain the mental willpower required to sustain such levels of magic, the Firey launched the overgrown fireball with a sharp cry, directing its aim squarely into the center of the golem's physical body.

They had all expected an explosion large enough to level both of the schools, and themselves in the process. Instead, the ball of flame was consumed by the bulk of the spirit's mass, its skin and body immediately boiling over with the intensity of the flames that had entered it. What few showers of flame that had remained from the attack were easily deflected by the power of the two celestial guardians behind them, seeing as their mistress was too spent to deal with it herself. Within a short time, the classroom was plunged into the more natural half-darkness of the night, save for the glow of the moon and stars from beyond the windows. Without the golem to maintain it any further, the corrupted aura around them had completely dissipated.

What remained of the spirit's physical form was a hardened metallic statue that had fallen backwards onto the ground, its shape in a kind of grotesque resemblance of a human body. Though it had bubbling craters and gaping holes pock-marking the majority of its features, there was no mistaking that it was the golem's body, and not the splattered hunk of slag that should have resulted from the Firey's efforts. They could still sense the spirit's presence within the statue, though, entrapped as it was, dark and brooding. That it had managed to survive the overpowered onslaught of Sakura's flame was something a relief, but Eriol's assumptions of its state of mind were so far proving to be true. It was so overwhelmed by the corrupting darkness of its master, despite its simple-minded nature, that it had failed to regain control of itself during the Firey's assault. They could all still feel the corruption and depravity within its mind that had, until recently, been engulfing the entirety of the classroom.

They could only hope that the time it would soon spend alone, within the solitude and peace that its sealing would provide, would eventually be enough to grant it a release from its former master.

"Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Steel, be disjoined!"

The chanted words from Sakura's magic brought forth the sickening warp within space-time, separating the mind from the body. The disfigured statue before them fractured and eventually shattered into grains of metallic dust within the twisted pressure of the distortion that had enveloped it, leaving behind a large pile of iron shavings to cradle the fallen gray crystalline orb that now held the spirit's consciousness.

Waiting for Sakura to retrieve the orb, Reios eventually stepped into range of the aura that had also been left behind, staring at it intently. His features drew blank as he swiped casually at it with the Staff that had remained within his hands. The drain upon his spirit, the power required to dispel the spirit's energies, wasn't at all noticeable through the lethargy that he now felt. Revenge just wasn't enough to satisfy him.

The others, at first, wondered at why he continued to remain still and silent. He only stared idly into the space where the spirit's aura had lingered, instead of celebrating the victory that they had all just achieved. It was Tomoyo, with her keen powers of observation, who realized it first, recalling the words that he had shouted at the spirit just before its defeat:

"_You already took my family's pride, and I'll be damned if I let you take my own!"_

She didn't pretend to have any kind of supremacy over the English language, not by a long shot, but she still knew enough to understand the basic meanings behind his words. This fact was made blatantly aware to the rest of them when he lifted up the flute casing from his back, pulling the shoulder strapping over his head so that he might examine the casing more clearly. They all knew what he had meant now. That flute wasn't just a normal, store-bought instrument, but rather had held a special meaning for him. From what Tomoyo could translate, it was likely a link to his past, perhaps even to his family. Despite his reasons for having disavowed his family name, Reios had still been made disturbingly upset by his loss. His reactions were thus understandable, all things considered.

Sakura stepped forward through the few paces that spanned between them, hesitantly placing a comforting hand upon his shoulder in a show of emotional support. His head dropped slightly in a silent reply, all to hide the slight smile of appreciation that was meant for her, and more so for the tear that was rolling down the side of his face that she could not see, though he could not fully hold back the sounds of sadness that sought to escape him. There was more that Sakura wanted to do to help, and yet she somehow knew that anything she could have said or done would have been meaningless to him. So Sakura simply stood where she was, consoling a friend. The others could only watch on quietly, feeling his sadness in their own way.

His fist tightened momentarily on the bag-like flute casing that he held within his hands, before tossing it aside carelessly as an unwelcome memory.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	44. Colorless Memory

_5-7: Colorless Memory_

The clock behind him struck five bells to signal the approaching of evening, yet he did not care. For the time being, the world around him was awash in only gray, the color of the entity that had literally sucked away his life's work in the blink of an eye. The same color that had _been_ his life's work, ironically, though such thoughts and realizations only served to drive him further into his deepening depression.

Through the entirety of the morning, Reios had attempted to clean his apartment of the mess that he had made in an inexcusable rage from the previous night. Yet such efforts had only served to remind him of the reason behind his anger, moving him to bouts of depression or yet more fits of anger, though these he was more able to control so as to at least get the job done. By the time early afternoon had managed to roll around, he had found himself sitting in his oversized recliner chair, well aware that he was supposed to have been at the high school for recital practice. Yet what was there to practice with, now? What was the point, even?

An unexpected weight found its way onto his lap, though his mind could only register a faint warmth rubbing against his one hand that was hanging off of the armrest of his chair. It took him a few moments to realize that it was a cat making all of the fuss for his attention, likely due to the fact that he had neglected to offer it any canned food that morning. Of course, there was still the bowl of dry kibbles that he always left half-full for it to pick at, but even then the animal always seemed content to incessantly annoy him until he shook at _least_ a new handful into it.

Pulling himself away from his thoughts momentarily, he scooped up the cat into his hands and turned it so that he could stare into its yellow eyes. The fluffed-up white Persian, with its V-like gray forehead, had somehow found its way to his doorstep soon after his arrival in Japan. Him being a sucker for cats, he had failed to remove the thing after it had shot its way through the door and into his home the moment he had opened up his apartment for the first time. There was barely enough room in the place for him alone, and yet regardless of this, he had soon found himself sharing his residence with it.

Under the gaze of his feline friend, he found himself able to discard his melancholic thoughts, if only for the time being. His mind temporarily cleared of any current distraction, he instead found himself replaying within his mind the moment of how he had first received his precious flute.

_He had only been a child back then, not even four years old yet. At this point, most household tables, not to mention most any furniture piece, were still generally taller than him. He recalled himself working on a recently acquired coloring book, provided to him by his grandmother who was still alive at the time. He could still remember the smell of her chocolate chip cookies as she finalized their preparation for sampling._

_His mind having wandered from his book, he had found himself then standing beside the family's heirloom grand piano. A majestically crafted instrument, its black surface was constantly being polished to a mirror-reflective gleam by his grandfather. When his grandfather had played on those white keys, striking with what seemed to be completely randomized motions, the metal strings within the piano always procured the most wonderful of melodies and hymns. It was because of this, he supposed, that he had then found himself drawn to the piano, intrigued by the beautifully polished ivory keys that had been left open for display._

_He looked up to the open music book sitting atop the piano's book ledge, left to a page that represented one of his grandfather's more favored songs. He could recognize it because his grandfather had recently given him a lesson on interpreting sheet music. As he read along with the lines and dots, he could hear the melody playing out in his head, and without even realizing it, his hand had reached up to strike at the the first few opening keys of that same melody. __As though recoiling from a venomous snake__, he pulled his hand back fiercely once he had realized his actions, suddenly very ashamed that he had touched his grandfather's precious piano._

_Of course, who else would chance to show up at just such a moment than that very same grandfather? The old man had knelt over him, and he in turn had expected harsh retribution for having touched the piano. His grandfather had been notorious, back then, for being unforgiving in his punishments. Instead, he had received a light-hearted praising for having remembered the music lesson offered to him, and even having made sense of it by playing a part of the song. Failing to understand, Reios's childish mind could only continue to apologize to his grandfather, and was left there to feel ashamed as the old man retreated to the back of the house to retrieve something._

_Upon his grandfather's return, Reios had spied a slender, silver object resting in the old man's hands. His grandfather had explained that it was an instrument called a flute, and that it had specifically belonged to Reios's father, a person of which the young child had only heard vague stories and little else. That father had apparently made him promise to give the flute to Reios, should the day ever come that he showed some form of musical aptitude. His grandfather had often explained that musical ability ran thick in the family blood, so even as young and uneducated as he was back then, Reios had supposed this to make sense._

_Having been unsure of what to say, Reios had accepted the flute silently, more in awe of the instrument itself rather than in the significance of what it represented. As he had looked the flute over, he had heard his grandfather say that they would practice with it every evening from that point on until such a time came that Reios surpassed his grandfather's skill in musical theory._

Reios chuckled slightly to himself, the first hint of a good mood since his awakening that morning. He found it interesting to note that, even after he and his grandfather had fallen out of favor with each other, they had still continued to work together every evening until Reios had achieved a mastery of his instrument almost three years later.

A chime sounded throughout the apartment, signaling the presence of visitors at his door. He shooed the entrenched cat away from him with a word and a shove, "Alright, Sybil, off ya' go. ...Come on, get going already."

He stood up as soon as the stubborn cat was off of him and straightened his clothing, nearly shouting for those visitors to enter until he realized that he had locked the door last night, due to his sour mood. Originally, he had not wanted to be disturbed, and in a way, he still didn't. Then the thought hit him that perhaps being able to converse with someone, in opposition to rotting away on his own for the whole day, would be enough to cheer him up. Sadly, the thought did little to repel the returning somberness that had gripped him since the previous night.

He swung the door wide open, working under the expectation that it was most likely one of his friends. What he didn't expect was for all four of them to be standing there. He scanned the whole lot, and jumped to one of the more obvious conclusions about their presence, "I suppose you came to find out why I didn't show up today?"

He was well aware of how lackluster and rude his voice had sounded just then, yet he did nothing to hide it. His apparent condition, in turn, prompted a question from Sakura which she probably would have eventually asked anyway, "Are you all right?"

Reios shrugged, "I'll be fine. Nothing that a good night's sleep will be able to fix, anyway. Please, come in."

The heavy tone of sarcasm in his voice only made to dampen the mood further, as they all made themselves comfortable on the pair of small, two-seat sofas that Reios had available. Reios plopped back down onto his own recliner, no longer caring to try and understand the reasonings behind their arrival. Not even Sybil's incessant pushes for attention lifted his spirits this time, even as the cat made to reclaim its spot upon his lap regardless of his ignorance. His only wish, at that moment, was that his visitors turn any possible conversation away from his current troubles, and preferably before he started to break down right there in front of them.

"You're not all right," Sakura said matter-of-factly.

Reios couldn't help but grin to himself, "You know, I'm probably not. And, honestly, I don't know if I ever will be, either. That flute was the only physical connection that I've ever had to my father... and to..."

Hearing the true reasoning for the first time helped to place a real understanding to his melancholic state, and also served to confirm their initial suspicions. Such confirmations brought out a deep gaze of concern from Sakura, a gaze that she shared with Eriol and Syaoran. Her energetic smile completely wiped it away, however, as she turned back to Reios after giving up an acknowledging look to Tomoyo.

The raven-haired girl took to her cue, "Well, we might have something to make things better."

Reios plucked one of his cards from the lamp table that was beside him, flashing it at them before they could continue, "If you were thinking of using the Return card to go back and get it, don't bother. Mine already told me that it would be almost impossible. Shouldn't interfere with the flow of time, or something... useless."

Sakura was shocked that she hadn't thought of such an idea sooner, "Well, actually, we hadn't really thought of something like that," she admitted, "but we still think that we can change things for the better.

"I... can't really say that I've ever truly lost anything important to me," she started, though the dream that she had experienced just two nights ago quickly flashed through her mind, "But I couldn't just sit by and let you deal with this on your own. So thanks to Eriol's research, and some designer work from Tomoyo, we all came up with an idea."

Curious enough to actually be interested, Reios looked up from the floor to gauge their thoughts. He wondered, what in the world could possibly bring his father's flute back to him? Yet instead of the familiar faces visiting him, he was rather greeted by a purple, ninja-like entity instantly materializing into view right in front of him.

"What-the-hell-is–!?" he yelled, jumping backwards into his chair in a panic, which not only caused it to skid back a pace or two, but also sent Sybil scrambling out of his lap and into an adjacent room. By the time that he was able to recognize the familiar feel of the card's magic at work, he had already made a scene out of it.

"Relax," Eriol told him, all while trying to hide the slight smirk on his face, "It is only my Stealth card. I am afraid that she has a slight tendency for mischief, something that I cannot really control. She does have something to give to you, though."

As he spoke, the card offered to Reios a small, black-lacquered case, something about the size of a large hand purse. He eyed it carefully, internally wondering as to whether or not it was just another trick by the female card, though he accepted it all the same.

"We wanted to keep it hidden until the timing was right," Sakura explained, "so Eriol agreed to have his Stealth bring it in with us."

"What is it, then?" he asked, slightly intrigued now.

"Open it and find out," Tomoyo replied to him, a hint of her own mischief now present in her voice.

An eyebrow twitched at Tomoyo's tone, but Reios soon turned his gaze down to examine the case again, noting the two silver clasps that were facing away from him. Turning the case over, he flipped the clasps open and lifted the top of the casing up to inspect the interior. A wonder unlike any other washed through him for barely a second, and then was replaced by a feeling of a far stronger quality, when he finally realized what it was that he was looking at.

Though it had been separated into three sections for the ease of storage that it provided, he was quite capable of recognizing a flute when he saw one. The one resting on his lap, however, when compared to his old one, had a different feel to it. The coloring was different, for starters. It was gold-plated, as opposed to the typical silver that he was used to, and there was a pair of folded-in wings at what was supposed to be the tip of the instrument. And yet, that wasn't what he could truly see. All the same, he lifted the end-piece out gingerly in order to examine it more carefully.

"We realize that it will probably never be a replacement for what you lost last night," Sakura explained, "but at least this way, you can still keep playing the music that you love, right?"

He toyed with the yellow-tinted wings, unfolding them into their extended position. He couldn't help but smile at that.

"And whose idea was this?" he asked.

Sakura's cheerful grin brightened up even more, "Tomoyo's, actually. We all agreed that a personal touch would be a nice addition. Now we can all be a part of the music in our own way."

Reios looked away from the piece that he was holding, and eyed Tomoyo carefully, "Something of a business emblem, I presume?" She merely smiled at him in reply.

His gaze returned to the flute piece that was resting in his hands. He continued to look at it without really putting his mind to thought, and simply sat there for a while. After a short wait, the others began to worry that he might not accept it, that perhaps he had been far too attached to his old instrument to want to care for another. Not that any of them would really blame him, but it would be a sad loss if Reios were to give up his musicianship because of it.

Finally, he replaced the piece back into its case, and closed it up gently. After the clasps had been clicked shut, he took a deep, silent breath, trying to collect up the words that he needed to say.

"And all this time, I thought it was just a sense of duty..."

His eventual choice of words was far from what they had expected, confounding them to no end. In turn, it prompted Syaoran to ask, "What do you mean by that?"

Reios's gaze returned to the friends seated around him, slowly looking at each one carefully as he made his explanation known, "When I first met you all, it was by a chance encounter that I was able to witness Sakura being accosted as she was. I intervened, and sent her attackers running, through a sense of duty – a personal belief that I help those in need as such needs arise. At first, I thought I was sticking around because of that duty, and the continued need to help protect, what with our recent partnership against the spirits and all. Today, however, I think I finally understand why I truly continue to feel this way.

"To me, the only devotion greater than that of duty is a devotion to one's family, and that's the sense that I've been getting from each of you that is in this room. Even for as little a time as we've known one another, it is as if you've all become like a brother or sister to me. And I would do anything – _anything –_ to protect the family that I hold dear... and now that includes all of you. Thank you all, really."

"Anything for family, right?" Tomoyo remarked. He chuckled slightly in response, his thin smile turning into a large grin.

He stared back down at the black case that was resting upon his lap, purposefully ignoring the singular tear that was rolling away from his eye. Within that tear, he felt all the sadness and burdens of the long-gone past fall away, taking with it the multitudes of tears of the present that had threatened to overwhelm him just minutes before. It felt like he was ready to make a fresh, clean start of it all.

"So does that mean you'll still play at the recital?" Sakura asked, while trying (but failing horribly) to limit the excitement in her voice. As a result, Reios couldn't help but turn his grin to that. What else could he say?

"Of course I'll play! I mean, I don't exactly have an excuse anymore, now do I?" he replied wittily, "Besides, now I'll have to perform at my very best to honor this gift that you have given me. In two weeks time, I'll be there."

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*= =*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

_End, Chapter 5_


	45. The Dream, Revised V

**Chapter 6 – Earthen Lore  


* * *

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6-1: The Dream, Revised V_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream. The same dream that she had had before, made of eternal darkness, of new books and new magic, and of an ever-present sense of fear. And yet on this night, she found something to be disturbingly different from all of her previous encounters. This time, as she scanned the blackness that was all around her, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. No little bird that was impossible to defend, and no spiraling vortex that was impossible to defeat. Aside from herself, the dream was wholly devoid of any and all forms of existence. This time, the world truly was all black and darkness.

Without knowing why, she immediately started running in a random direction. An untraceable source of panic welled up within her as she continued onwards, unable as she was to find anything that could separate her from the isolation of this place that she now suffered. But it wasn't so much the isolation that was scaring her, she soon noticed. It was more like thinking that she was unable to find her way. She had become lost within the darkness surrounding her, and that is what scared her the most. One would most probably think that it would be impossible to become lost in a vast and open space, but that's what it was. For whatever amount of time she ran, or whichever randomly chosen direction she chose to follow next, she could not find the way out. She could not even will herself to escape the dream and head back to her own, sleepy world, as she had often done several times in the past.

And yet she knew that she had to find her way out of this non-existent labyrinth before she could find her own dreams again.

A dream being what it is, she did not have to rely on the physical limitations of reality. She ran and ran throughout the darkness for what seemed to be an eternity, striving ever onwards without finding her required destination. She continued ever onwards, without pause, never tiring. Though, after a time, she realized that she should have literally dropped dead by now from all of the excessive running that she had done. If time could even be measured within a dream, she would have guessed herself to have been on the run – a non-stop marathon – for at least a few hours. And still, the dream continued on... and on... and so did she.

What saved her, in the end, was her alarm clock ringing out loudly against the backdrop of her dream. The piercing digital beeps of her real world shattered the walls of this false one to pieces, finally revealing the doorway that would lead her back into her own reality.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	46. Late Shift

_6-2: Late Shift_

It wasn't the first time that Sakura and Tomoyo had found Rika staring out across the courtyard and soccer field, with her attention utterly taken by their old elementary school that laid across the way. Over the past week, she had grown into more and more of a daydreamer, and was often found to be looking out across the school for no good reason. While Sakura just attributed it to Rika's father having left for his overseas job again, Tomoyo was sure that there was something else going on. The fact that Rika kept rubbing at the new silver ring on her left hand at random times was sign enough of it. And when she was questioned on it, Rika would only remark hesitantly that her father had agreed with her on some kind of proposal, and that she was just preoccupied with the ramifications of it all.

When Tomoyo included those explanations into her deductions, she was pretty much certain of what that "something else" was, though she purposefully kept such notions to herself.

"Your rehearsal yesterday sounded really wonderful, and it's getting better all the time, too!" Rika stated, once everyone had found each other and seated themselves beneath the courtyard tree, "I wouldn't be surprised if you could sing those songs in your sleep."

"Oh, no, it's not all that," Tomoyo denied, "It only sounds that good because I have Eriol and Reios playing alongside me."

"Well either way, it seems that everyone else wants to come see the recital now," Rika remarked, "I _think_ that Chiharu and Naoko both went and cleared their evenings, just to come and listen. Yamazaki might also be working on taking that evening off from his part-time job, too, but I'm not sure."

Sakura had kind of been expecting that all of their friends would want to go to the recital, but it was still exciting enough to actually hear about it, "Really? Hey, maybe we can all go out for dinner after! My dad, brother, and Yukito are all coming too. It would be like a celebration!"

Rika agreed wholeheartedly, "That's a great idea! I'll ask them about it the next time we see each other," then diverted the subject, "So, what kind of songs will you be performing?"

Tomoyo recalled up the few songs out of the choir's repertoire that they were scheduled to perform, "Well, the first one is going to be a simple song, one of the ones that we learned in elementary school. Mr. Akita even composed an original piece for Reios to play alongside us as the traditional guest musician. After that, the whole choir gathers up for two more selections, which is going followed up by a small performance from the school's drama club. And to close the night, I perform another solo with Reios and Eriol supporting me. That last song is going to be more of a traditional, European style, too. It's a piece that Eriol had sent over from England, and it's going to be the first time that I've used English lyrics for a whole song, so I'm kind of nervous."

"I'm sure you'll do just fine," Eriol's voice told her, as he and Syaoran walked up from behind them, "You've been doing very well these past few sessions. Your grammatical errors are quickly disappearing, and your fluency in properly accenting the language, as opposed to using the usual Japanese 'kana-English', has improved drastically from when you first started."

"Oh!" Tomoyo called, slightly startled at their sudden appearance, "Thank you very much. I hope I won't disappoint anyone's expectations!"

"He's right, you'll be fine. We're all cheering for you," Syaoran assured her before sitting himself next to Sakura, and a fair bit closer than normal, which caught everyone's attention. Sakura took advantage of the close space to offer him a quick hug, making him blush slightly with the due attention.

"So, did they say yes to _tomorrow's_ event?" Rika asked to Syaoran, once she had opened her small lunch box now that everyone had arrived.

Syaoran huffed slightly in amusement, "Strangely enough, Yamazaki wanted to go as much as I did, and was intending to ask _us_ if _we_ wanted to go. I think it's safe to say that both he and Chiharu will be coming with us. As for Naoko, she practically jumped at my invitation, once I had started talking about museum exhibits. Did she become some kind of history buff, while I was gone?"

Sakura grinned as she bit down on a clump of rolled rice, listening idly as Syaoran and Tomoyo went back and forth about Naoko's fondness for stories and historical references. For as distant as they had grown recently, their old gang was still finding all sorts of chances to spend time together. Their newest up and coming opportunity, with Syaoran wanting to go visit a new exhibit that had just opened up at the museum in the city's downtown core, was as good an excuse as any to gather them all together again.

"Now, all that's left is to contact Reios, somehow," Syaoran finished off.

"That's easy enough," Tomoyo put in, "He'll be coming to the school today for another rehearsal, seeing as he's rather overly eager to test out his new instrument. I can ask him for you then."

"I would appreciate that," Syaoran said, "If he can go, tell him: 'three o'clock at the museum plaza'."

With her nod of agreement, he shifted the subject, "Well, any ideas as to what else we should look at while we're there? Just one exhibit isn't going to keep us occupied all afternoon."

The first reply was Sakura's wish to view the natural wildlife exhibit that she had read would also be displayed there. Naturally, he should have figured that Sakura wouldn't be able to resist looking at all the cute (and some not so cute) animals.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

Of course, she wouldn't be able to go to the museum at all if she ended up getting in trouble with her teachers for not having done her homework that night. As such, Sakura found herself working on mathematics problems well and late into the evening. Not one of the subjects that she would have preferred to be pulling the late shift on, by any means, but it had to be done.

On a specific problem, an algebraic question to be exact, she seemed to be having problems going through the specific steps to solve for the variable. Thinking to reveal some hidden clue, she read aloud to herself, "If _a_ equals one-half of _i_ plus _o_, then multiplied by _e_..."

She checked for the given values of the variables, referenced the values with the variables in the problem, and lost her place in the equation before she had even begun. Frustrated, she set down her pencil and leaned back into her chair, taking a moment to close her eyes and relax her mind. She had just worked through several other problems of a similar nature, so why this one's solution continued to elude her was confounding her to no end. She needed a diversion for a few minutes, something to rest her mind with.

As her luck would have it, that diversion flew into her room under the guise of a floating bowl of pudding. Accompanied, of course, by the local guardian glutton. He seemed to have remembered that there would be more than one person sharing the bowl, as well, for he was carrying two spoons along with him. Sakura noted that one of them had already dug a "small" hole into the pudding, a sight that forced her to hide away an untimely, humored grin with one of her hands.

"Sakura! I brought a snack for us!"

She smiled more openly at his enthusiasm over a simple desert, watching patiently as he set it down beside her work papers. Watching him walk around the bowl, and accepting the second spoon in the process, she then considered enlisting his aid. So she asked, "Hey, Kero, I don't suppose you know how to answer this one?"

Kero placed his own spoon down and plodded over to the paper where her finger rested to inspect the question. A moment's glance at the given equation that she was referencing soon told him all that he needed to know: that he was way in over his head. Fortune favored him in that his back was facing towards Sakura, though, ultimately saving him from having to outwardly reveal his own confusion. He put on a wizened expression before turning to face her.

"This? It's an easy one. Far too easy for one of my intellect," he told her, which got her hopes up, until he continued, "But you should try and solve it for yourself, you know. You won't learn anything if all the work is done for you."

_There, good recovery_, he thought.

"If you didn't know how to solve it, you could have just said so," she chided, seeing right through his fib. Kero, on the verge of breaking out into a cold sweat for having been caught in his lie, fluttered back over to the pudding bowl and began assaulting it before he could be reprimanded further.

"Maybe I can ask Dad about it before I go to bed," she muttered, swiping at the contents of the bowl while there was still some pudding left to be had. Already there was a gaping crater in the pudding larger than Kero's mouth (separate from the first crater that she had spied originally), despite the fact that he had still managed to fit the contents of that crater into said mouth all at once.

A taste test revealed a thick flavoring of strawberry, a fact that pressed her to make another attempt at the bowl. That was when she noticed that there still remained the same amount of pudding as when she had taken her first spoonful, which prompted her to look towards Kero with a worried expression. Normally, he would have had a good two-thirds of the bowl cleaned out by now. Instead, he was sitting beside it silently, his spoon laying nearby and completely ignored while he meditated on his own thoughts.

"What is it?" she inquired, before biting into the second spoonful.

Kero looked to her with a side glance, "It's the spirits we've been fighting... I can't get them off of my mind. I keep thinking that perhaps there's something more to their purpose – and ours – in all of this."

"What do you mean?"

Kero stood up and walked away to the edge of the desk, still deep in thought, "We already know that Clow Reed has had a major hand in this. Eriol revealed to us that his memories of the past are being manipulated by a kind of time-lock spell, meant to limit his access to knowledge about these spirits. But even though Eriol tells us that he knows little beyond what Clow Reed has allowed him to know, I can't shake off the feeling that he still knows more than he's letting on."

Sakura eyed the guardian curiously, "I don't think that he would intentionally keep any helpful information from us. He's not working against us anymore, you have to remember that."

"Yeah, I know," Kero uttered, "and I want to believe that he's telling us the truth. But he's still hiding something from us. I'm almost certain of it. I don't know what it is, and I don't know if its actually important or not, but he _is_ hiding something.

"Take the defeat of the spirits for example. With them having originally been rampant, there were sources of darkened energy littering the entire city. Though, they were hard for me to pinpoint, until such a time as they revealed themselves. As we took each one out, the darkness and confusion had lifted slightly, but this only revealed something else: a deeper kind of darkness, different from that of the spirits, somehow. Every time we took out one of the loosed spirits, this different kind of darkness ended up growing stronger as a result. While I still can't pinpoint any type of location on it, I can sense it, even now. And yet, Eriol has still to even mention anything about it."

Alarmed that something had bypassed her own senses, Sakura closed her eyes and sent her mind's eye flying throughout the city, searching and scanning for Kero's 'deeper, different darkness' even as he was still in the middle of describing it. Yet with just a passive sweep of the city and its surrounding regions, she was unable to sense any obvious form of darkness other than that of the two elemental spirits, the remainder of the seven that as yet remained to be challenged. Then it occurred to her that she was actually able to sense the remaining elemental spirits directly, and she focused her mind even harder on them to try and determine why.

They were still dormant, the both of them, but both were very powerful in their own right. Far stronger than any of the other spirits that they had faced so far. One of them she felt that she could have almost located, perhaps. It was not nearby, but it was not very far away, either, except for that she could also sense that it was extremely deep underground. Then there was the other one, even more powerful still than its companion, and yet it seemed to be all over the place. It's presence was weak in several multitudes of points, only to be amazingly strong at specific other areas, which was making its central source very difficult to locate. It was almost as if that source was too far away to fully detect. All the same, it was obvious to her that this untraceable power was the epicenter for all of the various power points that she had found.

She explained all of this to Kero right after he ended his explanation, but he shook his head at her in denial, "No, that's not the kind of magic that I'm sensing. However, now that you mention it..." he added, then paused as he concentrated his own magicks onto the new topic, "I can sense the two other spirits now, as well. They're powerful, and frighteningly so. Let's see... the one far below us can be nothing but the spirit associated with the element of the Earth. Because of this, and due to the fact that we've already defeated all of the other elements, that leaves only the element of Fire as the other source. Yet neither of these two are the darkness that I am sensing, that's for sure"

"But why can I sense them, now?" Sakura asked of him, "Before, I couldn't even sense a _nearby_ spirit until it made itself purposefully known to us. So why am I able to detect these last two?"

Kero hummed to himself, thinking hard upon his reply, "Hmm... I can only surmise that they've grown beyond the need to hide themselves. If they've spent a long enough time within their natural elements, they would have accumulated enough power by now to no longer fear us. Or so they will think. There could be any number of reasons."

He sat down on the edge of Sakura's desk, continuing to silently think to himself. At the same time, a dim light flashed from the other corner of the desk as Sakura's laptop screen flickered to life. The first thing it did was highlight a flashing button at the bottom of the screen to indicate that someone was trying to contact her through one of her instant messengers. She rolled her chair over slightly to check the screen, and found a pleasant surprise as Tomoyo's sign-in name popped up in front of her.

"How go the math problems?" was the opening question.

Sakura's answer took a few moments to be typed out, "Agonizingly slow. I think I'll have to ask my dad for some help."

"That's too bad. Maybe I can help you with some examples, tomorrow?"

Sakura brightened up slightly at the offer, "Yeah, that would be great. I'd really appreciate it."

"I'll be more than happy to help. Anyway, I managed to talk to Reios before he left the school today, and I just now got off the phone with Syaoran about his answer. Unfortunately, it seems that he had already made plans to perform as a volunteer musician, and will not be able to go to the museum with us."

Upon reading that, Sakura's mood went right back down to where her math questions and subsequent spirit problems had originally placed it. Despondently, she pecked out her next statement, "You're kidding. And I was looking forward to having everyone there, too. Oh, but maybe we can go listen to him later?"

As good as the thought sounded, Tomoyo had to break that idea as well, "Well, he didn't actually say where he was going to be playing at, sadly. And he will not be coming in tomorrow for morning practice either, so I cannot ask him then, I'm afraid."

This just kept getting worse by the second. There had to be some way to make things up for Reios not being able to go. Then, Sakura had an idea, but first she had to make sure of something.

"Oh, hey, Are you going to be bringing your video camera tomorrow?" she asked. The reply?

"Of course I am! I couldn't afford to miss any opportunity to record your adventures, even the most mundane ones!"

Yep, foolish question. With her questions confirmed confirmed (and her embarrassment set aside), Sakura posed her idea, "Maybe you could make a small video for him, then? Or even a collection of pictures, if nothing else!"

"Sure, that won't be a problem," was Tomoyo's answer, "I can bring my digital camera along, as well. I just hope I can pull myself away from taking shots of your work to take photos of the exhibit itself."

Sakura stared at the screen, after that, feeling needlessly yet understandably hesitant. She was not quite sure on how she should reply to that one, if she should even reply to it at all. On the side, she started considering bringing her Dad's camera with her to the exhibit as well, just in case Tomoyo ended up being unable to "pull herself away".

The bowl of pudding found itself being left unattended for a long while afterwards, ignored by both girl and guardian as they each contemplated at their own dilemmas.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	47. Fact & Fiction

_6-3: Fact and Fiction_

It was about mid-afternoon by time their commuter bus had found its way to the station near the museum. Almost three-twenty P.M. by Tomoyo's watch, to be exact. This had Sakura on the verge of worrying, since they were supposed to have been exploring all the exciting exhibits already. She began to hope that the others had not waited on them for too long, seeing as they were supposed to have met up at ten minutes to the hour – almost half an hour ago. Not only that, but Syaoran and Eriol would have been waiting even longer, because they had headed straight to the museum after classes, instead of swinging by home like she and Tomoyo had done.

"Yo! Over here!" Takashi called out from across the street, gaining Sakura's attention. She waved energetically at his half of their group, then lead the way in crossing the street when the coast was clear.

"Hey, everyone! Sorry, if we kept you waiting," she apologized, pulling in behind them as they all started on their way towards the museum's main courtyard that was at the end of the block.

Rika shook her head, "It's fine. We only arrived about five minutes ago ourselves. Traffic was pretty bad today, I guess. Syaoran and Eriol should already be in there, though."

Noting a missing face, Naoko looked about them curiously, "Oh? What about Reios? Shouldn't he be with you?"

"He had prior engagements, I'm afraid," Tomoyo informed them, "so he couldn't make it today."

"Well that's no good. He's going to miss all the fun, now," Naoko noted dejectedly.

Tomoyo held her hand up slightly, displaying her digital camera for all to see, "It's not so bad. I can take a lot of pictures of the exhibit while I'm doing all my recordings of Sakura. He won't miss a thing, when I'm done!"

Sakura couldn't help but glance nervously at her friend for that comment.

With nothing else to be done about it, they continued onwards towards the expansive courtyard that was set in front of the museum, and from there they proceeded directly through the museum's main doors. They soon found Syaoran and Eriol waiting for them within the foyer of the museum, and were surprised to learn that their admissions had already been paid for in full by the latter. It was a nice way to start the afternoon off, and they wasted no time in utilizing such a gift as they all bee-lined for the primary exhibit – Worldly Warriors, which had been advertised as a collection of art and figure displays depicting various scenarios of the human race's greatest warriors, knights, samurai, cowboys, and whatever else that could fit the bill. There was even going to be a live martial arts demonstration, later in the afternoon. It had come as no surprise to any of the others that Syaoran and Takashi would be overly interested in such topics.

For being a Saturday afternoon, it was surprisingly vacant within the museum's interior, with only a light sprinkling of families or explorative couples to be found anywhere within viewing distance. With the expected crowding not being present to impede their progress, they all managed to find their way to the first display area before Takashi even had a chance to toss out one of his infamous stories (much to Chiharu's relief).

What they found was a pair of model mannequins set within a rope-partitioned section that itself was sitting directly in the middle of the vast, circular display hall. The scene was made to look like that of a beach front, with the two mannequins posed against one another in a bout of mortal combat. Each one was dressed in the traditional garb of Japanese feudal warriors, though one was set more notably in poorer conditions. The one warrior that wore the proper and cleaned clothing was wielding a long, katana-like blade (that Sakura noted was far, _far_ longer than the ones that both Syaoran and Reios carried), while the other, unkempt swordsman held up a brown, wooden sword of an even longer length. At first sight, it was unimaginable for any of them that such oversized weapons could have been easily manipulated with the skill that such warriors must have had.

"The Duel of Musashi versus Kojiro," Syaoran read aloud, citing the large, bronze plaque that was set into a display podium in front of them. He looked back to the display as he added, "These two were arguably the most skilled swordsmen in all of Japan. Possibly, even of all time."

Takashi raised his finger up to make a point, "You know, in their time, most duels and battles were issued almost constantly between both samurai and feudal lords, and for almost any reason that could be conceived. Ranging anywhere from secretive political disputes, to something as simple as writing one's name on a list of challengers, there was always a fight to be had."

_Nothing to put a stop to... yet_, Chiharu thought, though her arm remained tensed regardless. So much for having a quiet afternoon.

The self-styled storyteller continued, "This particular battle was supposedly the most prominent moment in their respective careers as samurai. It was also potentially politically motivated, with Musashi having asked the local feudal lord to arrange a duel with Kojiro, who was considered the best swordsman of the area. At this point in time, Kojiro was a famed teacher of the sword arts, and so the battle was set on a nearby remote island. The point of such a location was to prevent Kojiro's students from taking revenge on Musashi, should Kojiro chance to not survive the encounter.

"Then, when the duel finally came to occur, Musashi arrived both late and severely unkempt. He came wielding an extremely long wooden sword that he had carved out of a spare boat oar, with its full length stretching to just over a full meter, while his opponent wielded a long-bladed nodachi of a similar length. Assuming that Musashi was showing a great amount of disrespect for their fight, Kojiro made several insulting remarks at him throughout the course of the fight only to receive a simple smile in return each time. Further enraged, Kojiro attacked with his strongest skill, the 'swallow cut', which was said to be so fast that Kojiro could strike a bird dead out of mid-flight.

"Expecting the over-confident attack, Musashi leapt into the air and struck Kojiro right between the eyes with his carved-up boat oar. He killed the man in one hit."

Unable to withstand any further tension, Chiharu's arm shot out hard to her left. It was just about to snatch at Takashi's ear when Sakura exclaimed, "Wow, you really know your history! This plaque has the exact same story written on it!"

Chiharu's arm dropped back to her side unexpectedly, and she found herself unable to comprehend what she had just heard. Had he actually told the truth for once? It was an impossible thing to believe that all this talk about boat oars and bird cutting, in such a time period as they were describing, had actually taken place. Granted, there were plenty enough of historical references that were both questionable and exaggerated while still being true, but that was beside the point. All she could do was stare at him in disbelief, wondering if he was actually going to behave himself for once.

"Then, afterwards," he added, "there was also the lesser-known battle that occurred just shortly after Musashi had left that island. Apparently, as he crossed the waters to return to the mainland, a sea dragon emerged from the water's murky depths. Having watched the duel, it had become veritably impressed with his swordsmanship, and it ultimately challenged Musashi to another battle, which the man easily accepted. So he dove into the waters, still holding his self-crafted wooden sword, and-aahah-ow!"

"Wooden swords and secret duels? Maybe... but sea dragons? Give it a rest!" Chiharu admonished, releasing his ear once she had finished her speech. Sakura, however, was left standing there in confusion, silently wondering to herself on how the fight with the sea dragon would have concluded. Even Syaoran, who knew pretty much everything there was about martial arts, wanted to hear the continuation of Takashi's history lesson.

With Chiharu maintaining a close eye upon her childhood friend, they moved onwards to a line of artwork paintings that was set up along one side of the hall. From there, they found the next bronze plaque that was set up to entitle the display, which Naoko soon enough announced to them.

"Illustrations of the Irish Hero, Cúchulainn..." she read aloud, then moved to examine a nearby oil painting, "I've read a lot about him – one of the most important warrior figures of all the Irish mythologies. In one story, he gets his name as a young boy by killing the local blacksmith's enormous and ferocious guard dog. And in another story, he singlehandedly defends his homeland against an entire army of invaders!"

"He was believed to be the descendant of a powerful Irish deity," Syaoran noted, "so it would make sense that he would have that kind of strength and skill."

Takashi made to further detail this next history lesson, "His deity-father blessed him with so much strength, in fact, that whenever he lost control of his temper during battle, Cúchulainn would literally transform into a hideous monster and become an unstoppable killing machine that knew neither friend nor foe, and he could often only be stopped by forcibly submerging him into three separate barrels of ice-cold water to 'cool' his temper. See that picture over there? That's the battle where it originally happened. The two paintings before it is him fighting the army from that same battle – the one that Naoko was talking about – all on his own. He pulled it off because of a reigning custom that allowed warriors to challenge each other to one-on-one combat at crossing fords."

They all looked further down the wall that was lined with varying forms of artwork to sight the set of images that Takashi was referring to. All except for Chiharu, at least, who was too busy trying to decide as to whether or not she should preemptively intervene on another story-telling attempt, or let it pass by and see if Takashi was going to potentially control himself. He was being extremely unpredictable today with his lies and tall-tales, and unnaturally so. Normally, she could see through one of his lies before too much time had passed, but now he was jumping back and forth so much that she was starting to question herself. In the corner of her mind, she began to wonder to herself if perhaps he was doing it on purpose. Telling the truth in one instance, only to switch over and catch her off guard afterwards, would easily be something that he would do _just_ to get a laugh out of it. She knew that he was doing it only to have some good and honest fun, but...

"Of course, that whole war was fought over the ownership of a pair of immortal cows," Takashi added on.

...but all the same, Chiharu couldn't help but think to herself that it would be a very nice change of pace both for her _and_ for him, if she could go just half a day without having to try and tear his ear off.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	48. Coincidence

_6-4: Coincidence_

"People can actually do that?" Naoko asked excitedly, in reference to the live demonstration that they had just departed from.

"That, and then some," Takashi replied, "It's been scientifically documented on several different occasions of simple, ordinary humans exerting extraordinary powers of the mind. It has also been known for centuries that such abilities can be greatly enhanced by the physical and mental training that various martial arts can provide. Also, a somewhat hidden fact is that this was one of the primary reasons for people developing martial arts styles in the first place."

Eriol took his chance to jump into the conversation, "This is very much true. Some of the more highly ranked martial artists in existence could do things such as levitate nearby objects, or even themselves. Others have had the ability to see into the future, or even communicate with others of their kind telepathically."

Takashi continued on, "I know of one such person, in fact, who was able to telepathically contact an alien from a distant world. Though, in that case, it was more because that alien just so happened to be attempting the exact same thing."

"Telepathy with aliens... do you two ever give up?" Chiharu asked flatly, even though she had long since given up herself on trying to stop their constant ranting. Her hope that Takashi would set aside his lies for one, fleeting day had died oh so very quickly after its conception, and she knew very well that it was her own fault for giving him the benefit of a doubt.

Ignoring the chiding, Syaoran glanced at his watch, then addressed the group, "It's only a half hour past four, so far. It looks like we still have about an hour or so yet, before we have to start heading home. I think there was an open-air cafe outside, so why don't we take a break before we come back to look at the other exhibit?"

There was a mutual agreement from all the members of the party, setting them on the path through the front doors and out into the courtyard. Off to the side, set against the outer wall of the building and encased by a fence of shrubbery, sat the cafe that Syaoran had referred to, with a thin stream of ambient music playing from within. Anticipating the refreshments and relaxation to come, they increased their pace to close the distance sooner.

It took them a moment before they realized that the music they could hear was, in fact, a live performance, judging by the clarity of the sounds that they were hearing. Tomoyo, in particular, was the most amazed by what they heard, for she had also heard this specific song before. A happy and upbeat, flute-driven lilt accompanied by the beat of bongo drums and an acoustic guitar. It was a piece that was rather suitable for a village in the midst of celebratory festivities, and it was a piece that had been played rather recently at one of her choir rehearsals.

Eriol had been at that same rehearsal, incidentally, though he wasn't showing any of the signs of surprise that she was. Rather, he ensured that those unknown to the ways of magic were out of earshot, then muttered quietly to the rest, "I would call it a coincidence if I didn't actually believe wholeheartedly against such things."

Sakura wanted to ask as to what Eriol meant by it, but instead recognized the face of one of the musicians before her mind had a chance to clue in to the meaning. She rushed ahead of the others, as a result, causing them to increase their pace even more to keep up, and stopped a few paces behind the gathered trio of musicians to watch them wrap up their song. She noted that the one making the drum-like sounds was on an electronic keyboard, while the second was picking away brightly at an acoustic guitar. But most importantly was that the third of the trio, the one with the familiar face, was playing an equally familiar, gold-plated flute with wings.

The small crowd and various staff attendants for the cafe made a thin round of appreciative applause as the song came to a close, but they were unmatched in comparison to the praise that was granted to the trio by the gathering of teenagers that had approached from behind. Turning to face their newest audience, the guitarist and pianist deeply nodded their heads in appreciation, though Reios was more inclined to look a fair bit shocked.

"Now, how's that for a coincidence?" he began, sparking a soft grunt of indignation from Eriol, "I can't go with you on your little field trip, and yet I end up where you're going anyway."

"But when did _you_ get here?" Naoko asked him, "We arrived around an hour ago ourselves, but never noticed you."

"Really? Because we've been here the whole day," Reios informed them, indicating his two companions beside him, "Well, at any rate, how's the tour so far?"

"It's great!" Sakura exclaimed, "We got to learn a lot of stuff, and Yamazaki has been helpful too!"

"I'm sure he has," Reios muttered with a dry tone, raising an eyebrow at the known fibber. He then glanced at his watch, "Anyway, it's only four-fifteen, by my watch. I'm guessing you're all going back in for another round of touring?"

"After we take a breather out here, that's the idea," Naoko replied.

"Well then, have a seat, and we'll see what we can do about playing another song. Sound good?"

While Syaoran and Takashi left to collect drinks for the group, the rest settled themselves at tables close by to the performance. They listened intently while Reios set his winged flute into a fluttering series of scaling notes to accompany one of his companion musician's guitar pickings. Together with more bongo drum work from the pianist's electronic keyboard, they shot off brightly into an upbeat Spanish dance number.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

A light, cheery tune followed Takashi and his half of the entourage across the courtyard and back in through to the museum, before finally being shut out by the thick-windowed front doors. Sakura's half, meanwhile, remained behind momentarily to put in an extra farewell to Reios and his fellow performers. As the next tune finished, however, they noted that the sky was beginning to grow heavily overcast, and that the cafe was clearing of people under the expectation of rain. So rather than just bidding goodbye to them, her half of the group instead assisted the musician trio with bringing their numerous instruments and belongings indoors.

"How much longer are you going to be here?" Sakura asked of Reios, after they had helped to settle his operation into a corner of the museum's foyer.

"Well, now that we've been forced indoors, we can only stay until the museum closes down for the day," came the reply, "I should think that we'll still have enough time to finish off the remainder of the songs that we had planned, right?"

Reios looked over to one of his companions for confirmation, who was busy setting up a weird instrument made up of a large felt bag, to which were attached several flute-like pipes, all of which were then attached to what looked like a small, portable bellows – Eriol had identified them as Uilleann pipes during their rest break outside. Receiving a curt nod to his query, Reios turned back to Sakura and the others, "Maybe we'll save the best one for last, then?"

"We'll have to hurry back so that we don't miss it," Sakura noted.

"We should get going, then," Syaoran put in, "so that we _can_ come back. Otherwise, the museum is going to close up on us for the day. Besides, Yamazaki and the others are probably already waiting for us at the next exhibit."

Under the guise of waves and smiles, they parted ways, with Sakura's group making quickly for the as yet unexplored wing of the building where the nature exhibit was supposed to be set up. They rounded the corner linking the foyer to the long hallway that sat opposite of the one that lead to the Great Warriors exhibits. From there, they made their way through it until about the halfway point, where they came up to a decorated archway that was lined with all sorts of rock-like formations.

"They said that they would wait at the first display in the next exhibit," Tomoyo recalled, "but the nature displays are supposed to be further down the hall."

"No matter," Syaoran said, shrugging, "if it's the first exhibit they came to, they'll be in here. If not, we'll just go to the nature exhibit anyway. This might even be it, though I don't see any signs about."

"Well, there's nothing to do about it but to take a look, right?" Sakura noted, stepping through the archway and turning the following corner into the exhibit before anyone could argue against her. Not that they would have, anyway.

They followed her in, and with another turn that ended up blocking their view of the exhibit's entrance, they came to a room that had its walls and roof fully lined with rock-like designs similar to the ones that had lined the archway entrance. It was giving the entire room the feel of being inside an actual cavern. Set into the ground before the room's newest spectators were six circular platforms made of a white marble, arranged into two rows of three. All of them were just large enough that one could stand on it at a shoulder-width stance and still have room to spare. To the side of the room, embedded into the wall, rested the display plaque for the exhibit that they viewed. All of this to be seen (which was decidedly hard to see, since there was strangely no form of lighting within this exhibit aside from that which managed to filter in from the hallway), and yet nowhere else within the room were any of their friends.

"This is a pretty odd display," Tomoyo muttered quietly. Eriol hummed softly in agreement.

Despite not seeing anyone at all within the room, Sakura walked up to the plaque to read out the description. If nothing else, they might as well see what this room was about before moving on to find Takashi and the others.

She read aloud, "'Second star and false moon, become. Merge sky and earth to make the way.' ...what does that mean?"

With the last of the words that escaped her lips, the visible world around them was instantly stolen away, drowned out by a blinding darkness as all the light from the hallway they had come from was sharply cut off from them.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

"Seems like we're drawing a crowd," noted the guitarist-turned-cellist of the musician trio, even as he made to tune his new instrument, drawing the attention of his two companions to the small group of people that had turned the museum's foyer into a makeshift cafeteria.

"They're probably all waiting to hear the 'main theme' of the exhibit that we're entertaining for," Reios surmised, who was now fiddling with some of the buttons on the electronic keyboard, "That, or they're finishing up their coffee break."

The third musician sat himself down on a tall stool, and settled the bagpipe-like contraption in beneath his right arm before remarking, "They'll be broadcasting this one over the building's intercom system, since we're inside now, so let's give it our best. Ready to go with that cello? We shouldn't keep the paying customers waiting!"

With a curt nod from their guitarist, who had just finished testing the strings of his cello, Reios adjusted the volume on the keyboard, set his fingers into place above the pearl-white keys, and started up a low, droning chord to accent the softer droning of the bellows-powered pipes. A gentle, almost sorrowful hum filled the museum's foyer as the trio started into their next song.

All at once, Reios's mind went blank without warning, stopping the first notes from the keyboard that he was attempting to play. It was like he was supposed to have noticed something, right then. He felt as though an extremely important fact had just been made plainly aware to him, and that he needed to act upon it immediately. The only problem with that, though, was that he was completely _un_aware of any changes around him. His surroundings were exactly the same as they had been thirty seconds ago.

"Hey, something wrong?" his bagpipe-wielding partner asked, who had been just moments away from taking up his solo performance.

Reios merely gave the man a blank stare and a couple of blinks before shaking his head in denial of anything, "It's just that... no. Never mind, sorry. Let's try this again."

Finally shrugging it off as just a stray feeling, Reios merely returned his fingers to the keyboard, and restarted the song.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

"I'm going to go see what's taking them so long," Takashi spoke out finally, "I'll be back in a minute."

He was sure that they were still talking with Reios, if anything, but they weren't going to get much exploring done if they had to wait too much longer. The museum was due to close in less than an hour. As he passed back through the door to the nature exhibit and peered down the long hallway that lead to the museum's main foyer, he had hoped to spot them heading his way. Having failed that, he began making his way through the hallway, thinking that perhaps they were still with Reios after all.

He made a quick mental note of the giant poster advertising for the Warriors exhibit that was hanging on the wall halfway down the corridor, but paid it little mind as he continued on towards the foyer.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	49. The Tests

_6-5a: The Tests_

Not again.

Within the first few seconds of being subjected to a total darkness, this was the singular and most horrifying thought that had pierced straight into Syaoran's mind. The last time something like this had happened, he had been subjected to a nightmare in which he had almost lost his true love. It had been merely an illusionary dream world created by the water spirit, granted, but it had been a place where they had _all _been brought so very close to their breaking points. The only thing that had managed to save them was Eriol's last-second intervention. With Eriol actually being with them this time, they would not see that chance for rescue again. The only thing Syaoran could consider were the consequences of his actions should he be forced to endure another such scenario...

To avoid having to experience that tragedy again, he instinctively lit up an elemental flame to cast away the darkness, and at the same time he silently begged to whatever god that would listen to make this _not_ be a repeat of prior events.

The fire that he held was just barely bright enough to reach to the far edges of the rock-formed room, but that was all he needed to set his fears to rest. Everyone was still all present with him, standing exactly where he had left them when the lights had gone out, and only the heavy sighing of a released, captive breath showed his relief. He eyed each of them intensely for any signs of injury or trauma, though, just to be safe.

Once he had verified everyone's condition as acceptable, however, his light became dwarfed by four larger flames that had spontaneously come into being from the four corners of the cavern-like room. Those free-floating fires lit their surroundings enough to make his own flame redundant, and so he doused it in order to save his energy for later.

Looking back towards the entrance where Sakura was already exploring, he watched her peek her head around the corner carefully. The deep frown of confusion that he could see on her face when she pulled away from the corner said more than enough, though she came back and revealed to them her findings anyway.

"The entrance that we came through is gone. It's just a dead end, now," she told them. Her concern for their predicament was rather obvious within her tone.

Syaoran nodded slowly, trying to keep an eye on all directions at once, "Yeah, and I think we all know what caused it to disappear, too. You feel that?"

Sakura reflexively checked her senses, and found that she could feel the presence of a powerful entity. It was nearby, perhaps, but at the same time it kind of wasn't. It was... it was almost as if she were literally _inside_ that entity. Considering the condition of their surroundings, and what they could possibly be up against, she reasoned it out quickly enough, "It's a trap... a spirit is doing all of this, isn't it?"

Eriol, who was trailing along the far walls with both his hand and his magic, nodded affirmatively, "Undoubtedly, the earth elemental, the only one of the two that remains to us that could make a cavern appear unnoticed in the middle of a busy museum like this. Not only is its base presence similar to the other spirits that we have encountered, but everything we are seeing here is also is starting to look a bit familiar now, as well. I think that Clow Reed was also subjected to whatever we're about to face, though his memories again refuse to tell me as to what we should expect."

"But from what I could sense last night, the earth spirit was still extremely deep underground," Sakura told them, "How could it have come this far in so short a time?"

"Elemental spirits can travel the extent of their own domains within the time it would take us to make a single footstep, much in the same way that light can travel at seemingly instantaneous speeds," Syaoran explained to her, then stopped to think for a moment as he caught on to her actual meaning, "Wait a second... you could actually sense its presence!?"

Sakura nodded slowly at the change of topic, "Yeah. I noticed it just last night when I was talking to Kero. He tried to get me to notice something else, but instead I found that I could sense two powerful entities somewhere out in the town. One was far underground, and the other was scattered all over the place. It was strange, since that was the first time I had noticed them without them actually giving themselves away."

"If you were able to sense them, then it may mean that they are starting to become strong enough to the point that they no longer fear us," Eriol surmised, leaning against the nearby wall as he thought to himself aloud, "If that is the case, then we will have to be extra careful with what we do here. In particular, it would seem that we fell right into this spirit's trap. We might be subjected to anything, if it has as much power now as I suspect."

"In any case, we should see about getting out of this room," Syaoran said, while reading over the plaque on the wall for probably the third time, "And we should probably start here."

Eriol pulled away from the wall he was reexamining and walked over to the plaque to analyze it for himself, "If my guess is correct, what we will have here is another test provided to us by this spirit. Yet unlike before, where the mermaid-like water spirit tested us against our own fears, this one will test us directly with riddles and puzzles."

For all except Eriol, the memories of what they had been forced through during their stay at the beach returned unbidden for the second time within the last few minutes, greatly enhancing their collective desires to find their way out of this mess as soon as was humanly possible.

Tomoyo, while making well and sure to keep close to Sakura, ran through the riddle on the plaque again, "'The second star... the false moon...' maybe these are referring to the sources of your powers?"

"In which case, the solution will likely revolve around Sakura and myself," Eriol noted.

Sakura, whom had moved to examine the stone platforms in the middle of the room, spoke up, "Don't forget about the last part: 'merge sky and earth to make the way.'"

Syaoran held up his hand to stop her, "One thing at a time. Let's figure out what your powers have to do with this, first."

The riddle made mention of her own powers, which got Sakura to pondering upon the thought of there being a second star, "Maybe there's supposed to be another person that can use the Power of the Stars?"

Eriol was inclined to disagree, "No, that won't be the case. Clow Reed intended for that power to be under the sole ownership of yourself and your descendants, and ensured that only your bloodline would have control of it. There will be no other with your type of magic."

"If we looked over the cards, maybe they could give us some kind of clue?" Tomoyo suggested, "If the riddle is saying something about the second and false forms of your powers, then maybe they mean some other kind of representation of yourselves?"

_Some other kind of representation...? _Sakura thought to herself, then realized that she had a couple of cards that could create images. In specific, to make another representation of her powers, or perhaps even herself...

"Oh! The Mirror card!" she exclaimed, "The riddle says something about a second star, so maybe I can use the Mirror to create a copy image of myself!"

Eriol followed along with her train of thought, "That may very well be, but consider the next part of the riddle: the false moon. A mirror is an illusionary reflection of the one that it is facing. As an illusion, it is not real. You have the right idea, but I think it would be more suitable to my side of the riddle."

"Don't you have another card that can copy things?" Tomoyo asked, "The Twin, wasn't it?"

With Tomoyo's question, Sakura knew that they had found the answer, "Tomoyo, you're a genius! Twin can create an exact copy of me, instead of making a reflective mimic like Mirror would. Should we try it?"

"I do not see any harm in trying," the sorcerer replied, lifting his key into view. Sakura copied him, releasing her own key alongside and summoning her Twin card as he did the same with his Mirror. When the ethereal winds had died down, they found an extra Sakura and Eriol standing beside their respective masters.

They waited for a moment, seeing if anything within the room would react to the magics, until Sakura finally broke the silence, "So now what? Nothing's happening..."

Eriol stared into the center of the room where the stone platforms were stationed, "We may have found our answer to the riddle, but my guess is that we still have to offer up our answer. These platforms may be how we are supposed to do that."

"All right, but be on your guard," Syaoran warned them, "We don't know what those platforms will actually do."

"We'll be careful," Sakura told him, then nodded to both Eriol and the two cards. Understanding their task, the two sets of twins stepped up onto the platforms, while leaving the final two on the far right empty.

For a time, nothing seemed to be happening. Sakura was just about to ask about what they were supposed to do next, when she noticed the lighting around them dim considerably.

"Well, so much for that," Syaoran muttered, pointing to a corner of the room. Everyone else turned to examine the area that he was indicating, and noted that where there once before had been a bright flame, there now only rested a thin veil of darkness.

"Maybe that's how it keeps track of our incorrect answers?" Tomoyo guessed.

"It is, and I don't think we want to find out what will happen if we answer incorrectly three more times," Eriol told her, as he and his copy stepped off of their two platforms.

"Well then, what about the last part of the riddle," Sakura reminded them, "about merging the sky and the earth?"

Eriol sighed to himself, "I am loathe to admit that I am at a loss as to its possible meaning. However, we should work with what we have."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked him.

He walked along the perimeter of the cave-room until he was on the far side of the platforms, "Well, consider that there are six stations in total. If we include our summoned friends, here, there would be six of us in total, as well. Either the answer involves all six of us and we are just missing a key part of the riddle, or the test requires that we all take part to represent a unified answer. Such possibilities seem the most likely, anyway."

"So you're saying that we should all take a platform, then?" Sakura asked, receiving a verifying nod from the sorcerer in turn.

Syaoran, however, chose to err on the side of caution, "And if it's a wrong answer again?"

"Then we still have two more chances remaining to us," Eriol replied calmly, though it was an answer that Syaoran had not been expecting. It also was not one that he had wanted to hear. Still, there was little to be had in continually arguing the idea.

With notable caution, Syaoran and Tomoyo both joined the two pairs of sorcerers upon the platforms, filling out all six stations as Eriol had requested. At the very same instant that Tomoyo – the last person to act – stepped up onto her platform, the wall in front of them shimmered slightly. The visage of an archway appeared in the rock, forcing the rock within the arch's boundaries to slowly fade away from sight until they could see into another room beyond it.

This, in turn, forced a small, rueful sigh out of Eriol, "And once again I find myself being compared to him."

When questioned by Syaoran, Eriol revealed his predicament, "More memories have come to me, now that we have solved the riddle. As chance would have it, Clow Reed had once met up with a philosopher that had described the laws governing those born with magical power in two ways: those who could manipulate this power to great effect, and those who were born only with a spark of it. He had referred to those with control – a typical sorcerer or magician – as those of the sky, while people with only a spark of magic – just enough to grant them a spiritual essence, or soul – were marked as those of the earth. It was a play of beliefs on the differences between gods and humans in Norse mythology, I think.

"I suspect that this earthen spirit, like its brethren, believes me to be Clow Reed, and in turn expected me to remember such a detail. Thus, I once again find myself being mistaken for a man that has long since been dead. It is not entirely surprising, but it is still _extremely _vexing."

"Again with the hidden truths," Syaoran muttered, "I should hope that Clow Reed is pleased with his efforts, because I'm sure not."

The point of their attention changed suddenly when the three remaining flames within the room gathered themselves together, floating their way along the roof of the cavernous room and through the archway that had appeared within the otherwise solid rock wall to fully light the new area beyond. From what they could now see of it, it was another cavern-like room that was similar to the one they were already in. From their current position, though, they could make no further analysis of its condition.

"Come on, let's follow them, before the wall starts to close," Sakura suggested, starting her way quickly, albeit carefully, into the next room. She made very sure to stay close to the walls and out of any potential danger.


	50. The Tests II

_6-5b: The Tests II_

The point of their attention changed suddenly when the three remaining flames within the room gathered themselves together, floating their way along the roof of the cavernous room and through the archway that had appeared within the otherwise solid rock wall to fully light the new area beyond. From what they could now see of it, it was another cavern-like room that was similar to the one they were already in. From their current position, though, they could make no further analysis of its condition.

"Come on, let's follow them, before the wall starts to close," Sakura suggested, starting her way quickly, albeit carefully, into the next room. She made very sure to stay close to the walls and out of any potential danger.

They found that the next room contained more of the same rocky surface lining the walls and roof, the same as their previous location, except for an area of marble tiling that was lining the entire floor up to about two meters before the wall they had entered from. Set into that tiling, on the left side of the room, rested a Greek-style pedestal with a gray, marquis-cut crystal floating above it. Directly across from that display, on the opposite side of the room from where that pedestal sat, floated a metallic, almost mechanized orb. It was inset with some kind of ruby-like eye that was staring right at the pedestal's crystal.

Busy as he was taking mental notes of the room's physical features, Syaoran didn't notice the archway behind him beginning to re-materialize into solid rock until it was too late. Reacting instinctively, he charged shoulder first into the reforming rock wall, though he only received a rather painful whack as the force of the tackle bounced him back hard into the room.

He hid the pain well enough that those around him showed little concern for it, and vented his growing annoyance by stating, "And again we're trapped. What, are we going to be herded about like animals in this place?"

Eriol pushed his glasses back up into place, noting Syaoran's angst, "Until we can come up with a viable method of directly combatting the spirit's true form, we can do nothing but to keep going as it wills. On a side note, it would also seem that our wrong answers will be counted collectively against us."

They all took note to his meaning, finding that there still remained just the three flames from before. This only served to shoot Syaoran's feelings of annoyance even higher than they needed to be, causing him to push his way past everyone and towards the plaque that was inset into the wall to their left.

"Let's just get this over with," he growled as he went.

They all gathered around him to read the plaque for themselves, though Sakura made light of its words aloud, "Silence is the saving grace, yet holds the key against the warding light."

"This one could be a bit more difficult," Tomoyo commented, before scanning the room for any potential clues, though she failed to find any. For starters, she wasn't seeing anything in resemblance to a key or any form of light, unless their trio of flames counted as such.

"I wish Yamazaki were here right now..." Sakura muttered, "He's always so smart when it comes to puzzles and riddles."

"When he and his partner are not trying to tell another one of their stories, anyway," Tomoyo added, though she made a point of aiming her all-knowing smile at Eriol as she spoke.

Eriol caught on to her grin rather quickly, "Tomoyo, I'm hurt. Do you truly believe me to not be honest?"

"Only when you're with Yamazaki," she replied.

Sakura glanced back and forth curiously between the two, before posing her question to Tomoyo, "Huh? Why wouldn't they be honest with us?"

Between his still-throbbing shoulder, and the extremely inane conversation that was going on (although, it was mostly just the throbbing), it was enough to drive Syaoran's annoyance of their predicament to its breaking point. To that end, he turned away from the others and decided to scout out the contents of the room instead.

Testing the marbled floor gingerly with one foot, Syaoran finally braved a full step onto the smoother ground, though he paused briefly to gauge any potential backlash to his actions. But then his own visual scans of the room were revealing as little as Tomoyo's had, and his limited ability to detect things with his mind was also revealing nothing of use. The fact that even Eriol had yet to say anything suggested that they wouldn't be able to just sense out the purpose of this room. Meanwhile, his memory of the various cards that his friends held wasn't coming up with anything either. Although the Silence card did come to mind, he was, for the moment, at a complete loss as to what it could possibly do to help them.

Stepping carefully across the room, he first made his way towards the floating orb. He walked about it, tapped it, eyed it closely, and even tried to push it from its position. Not only did the orb refuse to budge, but it also revealed neither hidden buttons nor inscriptions, or anything else for that matter that would have shed some light on their predicament. He then turned about, making his next move towards the crystal that floated above the pedestal.

Finally attentive of the ongoing search, at this point, Eriol began studying Syaoran's movements as carefully as Syaoran was studying the decorations within the room. Keeping in mind what they were supposedly searching for, Eriol spoke up, "If we are looking for a key, it is likely one of these two objects. The other will then probably be the warding light. But how does silence fit into all of it?"

Syaoran finished circling his way about the pedestal, only to find nothing odd with the neither the crystal nor the pedestal itself. Turning towards the others, he leaned into the pedestal with one hand while giving the crystal a rather harsh, sidelong glance, before starting his way back to them.

"If there's something to do with these things, I'm not seeing it," he told them plainly.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tomoyo saw a bright flash of red, and turned her gaze to find that the mechanical orb was staring right at Syaoran. Its previously dull, ruby-red eye was now glowing something fierce.

"Watch out, behind you!" she cried sharply, but by then it was far, far too late.

Syaoran spun about swiftly at her cry, his eyes catching the tail end of the energy discharge from the orb as it slammed clean into him. It sent him flying across the room faster than the human eye could follow, crashing his body none too gently into the wall nearby the plaque and forcing a loud wail of pain as he struck. He landed back to the ground in a crumpled heap soon after, unmoving and deathly silent, which had everyone fearing the worst.

Sakura was already by his side before anyone else had even thought to move, cradling his head in one hand while attempting to shake him to his senses with the other, "Syaoran! Syaoran, are you okay!? Come on, wake up! Please, be okay!!"

It would have been difficult to explain the level of profound relief that she felt – and everyone else, for that matter – when his eyes soon fluttered open, his amber gaze casting about dizzily as he gradually worked his way back into the world of the conscious. Once his senses had gathered up enough, though, he became acutely aware of an excruciating pain in his right arm, which helped to awaken him completely. He grabbed at that arm as soon as he realized its condition, though the haste with which he had moved only served to worsen the agony, forcing a grunt out of him as he squeezed his eyes shut against it.

"Are you all right?" Sakura asked him again anxiously, just barely holding herself back from outright panicking. She was caught between confirming that he was indeed conscious (let alone alive), and wanting to see what was wrong with his arm.

"Not quite... I... think it's broken," he told them haltingly, forcing the words through various gasps for air that the pain forced him to take.

Eriol pushed Sakura aside politely as he kneeled down beside Syaoran, and took the injured arm to hand as gently as he could. Though he could already see the unnatural bending of the limb with his own eyes, Eriol felt compelled to sense out its actual condition with his inner senses. In the end, though, his magic merely confirmed what everyone could all already see: that Syaoran's arm was indeed broken, and badly at that.

"Your humerus bone has been snapped almost clean in half," he finally informed them, "I suspect that you impacted against a sharp, convexed formation somewhere on the wall. The two halves of your arm are just barely remaining connected, mostly due to the muscle tissue that's pulling the arm back in on itself. However, there is also a great deal of heavy fracturing along the upper half of the bone, and I fear that the fracturing may yet spread. You will need medical attention immediately, once we are out of this place."

His inspection complete, Eriol stepped aside to allow Sakura her spot again, giving her the chance to do what little she could to comfort the pain, even though she herself knew that it would be far from enough. Standing back up to his feet, Eriol took in a calming breath in order to speak further. He feared that his next words would sound cold, yet he needed to speak them all the same, "Still, I think that you should be glad that this is all you received. Trapped as we are within the spirit's natural domain, it could have done much worse – and may still, yet. We should all be glad that this 'ward' chose to use an impactive energy discharge, instead of one that would have incinerated or pierced."

He then looked up towards the roof of the room, noting an increased darkness, "To make matters worse, it would seem that we answered incorrectly again. Another flame has vanished."

With Sakura's help (and with a _lot_ of careful maneuvering on his own part), Syaoran eventually managed to return to his feet, though she remained protectively attached to his good arm once he had steadied himself. Worried as she must have been for him, he made no move to detach himself from her, and in fact welcomed the support. Instead, he put more of his concern towards the two remaining flames at the far corners of the room, as well as to the mechanical orb that had attacked him.

Then he felt an extreme output of magical power, and turned sharply – a move protested strongly by his arm – to find Eriol cloaking himself in a great deal of raw magical energy.

"You're not intending to go out there, are you? Are you crazy!?" he shouted.

"As there are many who would still argue that I am just another Clow Reed, you could say that I am crazy. However, we will accomplish nothing by just standing around and thinking, and since I will not allow Sakura or Tomoyo to be placed in danger, that leaves only me to attempt this."

Eriol's half-humored attempt at joking aside, Syaoran was forced to see his reasoning, and ceded to the man's wishes.

From the very moment that Eriol had stepped onto the tiled area of the room, he felt the ruby eye of the orb turn to watch him intently, despite that it was currently staring straight ahead into the crystal before it. He made his way slowly to the center of the room to step into the orb's visual path of the crystal, and with some minute traces of the power that he wore about him, he began to sense about the surfaces and interiors of the two objects. There had to be _something_ that he could learn of their purpose or design, regardless of whether such information ended up being useful or not.

On the outside, his powers revealed nothing more than that which could already be seen visually: a ruby-set orb composed of mechanical parts, and a salt-based, marquis-cut crystal hovering silently above a normal stone pedestal. What struck him as odd, however, was that the interior of these objects were comprised entirely of natural stone and absolutely nothing else. While this wasn't exactly all that strange for the crystal and the pedestal, the fact that the mechanical orb was also made all of stone was intriguing, at the very least. He hummed inquisitively to himself, as such.

The magical wards that Eriol had weaved about himself picked up on the orb to his right before it even had a chance to charge its attack. This advantage allowed him that split second of time he required to dodge its assault, rolling forward and out of harm's way. The resulting discharge left a small crater against the wall just behind the floating crystal, which later left him honestly wondering at what Syaoran must have felt.

He rolled up to his knees, ready to pounce out of the way again, and in the effort took in an audible inhalation of air to steady himself. Again, the orb reacted and fired upon Eriol's position, missing by only mere moments as Eriol's magic once more gave him the advantage. Springing into the air, he performed a roll in mid-jump to land upright, yet with that landing was forced to evade a third attack as the orb's senses triggered to his heavy landing.

Escaping the boundaries of the tiled floor's reach, he braced himself against an over-calculated jump, pushing off of the wall and just barely managing to catch himself from stumbling back into the tiling behind him. He cursed himself for being careless, though he knew that he couldn't have known the full meaning of the riddle until just now, anyway.

Tomoyo thought to ask after Eriol's condition, seeing as he had just been assaulted with three separate attacks that had put Syaoran out of commission with just one. Her words were instead cut off as a sharp cry from Sakura turned their attention to the far side of the room, with all of them noting a further loss of luminescence within the room. Just one flame remained to them, now.

"I apologize," Eriol said finally, after catching his breath, "that was reckless of me. Now we only have one chance left to us to persevere through an untold number of puzzles."

"Don't worry about it," Sakura told him, "More importantly, are you all right?"

"I will be fine. The orb didn't manage to strike me, as close as it came. However, I do believe that I know how to solve this riddle, now."

Tomoyo spoke up before Eriol could voice his theory, "It's sound, isn't it? Or at least, sound generated from something within the tiled area."

Her observations were astoundingly accurate, although it was not all that surprising, when coming from her. Eriol nodded to her, "I believe so. It would explain the part about the saving grace, since those who cross silently are not attacked. Syaoran was not attacked until he spoke to us, and I was also left alone until I started making noise. By this, it would also make sense that the warding power – the orb, it would seem – is intended to open the path, since the riddle suggests that we use it to reveal the key."

"That means that we have to, say, destroy the crystal to find the key that we're looking for?" Syaoran asked. With Eriol's nod, he continued on to voice a suggestion, "Couldn't you or Sakura just use a card and destroy it that way?"

Eriol considered this for a moment, but eventually shook his head, "It may be worth a try, though I do not believe it will work. The riddle specifically relates the key and the ward to each other. I fear that any other means of destructive force would result in a failed answer."

"Wait a second," Sakura said, "Eriol, you said earlier that the orb used an _energy_ discharge, right? And energy can be a form of light?"

"That's right," Eriol replied, in response to her two questions.

Her idea verified, Sakura pulled out a card from her pocket and called its power into its true form before anyone could stop her. Moments later, she was holding within her hands a small, round, blue-framed and tassel-set mirror.

"What if we used the Mirror to reflect the ward's attack onto the crystal? I did it once before when we were after the Shot card, so it should have the same effect."

Eriol nodded, liking her reasoning, "If the power that the spirit put into the ward isn't greater than that of the card's power, and your own, more importantly, then it should work. In theory, mind you."

Syaoran grunted to himself humorously, at that remark, despite the jolt of pain that it evoked from his injury.

"I would like to yell at you all for wanting to be so reckless. Though, at the moment, what other choices do we have?" he noted, then turned his gaze fully onto Sakura, "But if you're going to go through with this, I want you to be _extremely_ careful. Don't say anything or make a _single_ sound until the Mirror is in position."

She flashed him a cheerful smile before setting her way out into the room, keeping even the noise of her breathing down to the point that she was almost holding her breath. She kept her steps painstakingly slow and measured, to avoid clapping against the smooth stone below her. Eventually placing herself on the far side of the room, so as to avoid having the ward shoot at her friends should her plan fail, she ever-so-slowly turned herself about to create a forty-five degree angle between herself and the room's two objects. The card's magic then guided her to place the Mirror into the correct position and angle.

With a pair of reassuring nods from Syaoran and Eriol, and an audible beep from the camera-obsessed Tomoyo, Sakura began to mentally prepare herself for this task. She needed to be patient with herself, so as not to scare herself away from this. After all, she knew that she was literally about to be shot at with a magic that had put Syaoran out of commission in a single blow. Not only that, but this was also their final chance to put in a correct answer, and she wasn't too keen on wanting to find out what would happen to them if all four of the flames were to vanish. To that end, she took in a silent and deep, drawn out breath to calm her jittery nerves. She took even longer to exhale that breath, so as to ensure that no noise was emitted from her as a result.

When she was finally ready to go through with it, she... looked to her friends curiously.

"What should I say?"

The ward reacted, targeting Sakura and firing without error, striking towards her chest with the full force of its power. Yet unknown to it's eye, as a non-human form of energy, the Mirror continued to lay in wait and reflected the energy attack as easily as it would have a ray of sunshine. The impactive energy blast shot true to its new target, found the crystal, and shattered it effortlessly. Shards of crystal and clouds of dust flew away from the pedestal in every which directions.

All eyes immediately turned upwards to the last flame, watching intently to see if this last guiding light was going to vanish on them as well. As fortune would have it, the flame instead began to dance around in its corner before darting out through a previously undetected opening within the far wall, where it soon was lighting up the next room as best it could.

They could all tell that it was going to be a long venture, and with only one flame remaining to them, their answers to this spirit's tests would have to be meticulously thought out from here on in. There was no margin for error anymore. Settling in for the long haul, they crossed through their current room, still being mindful of the ruby-set orb, and entered into their next test.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	51. Failure

_6-6: Failure_

It hadn't taken them too much longer after that second room to realize that it was only going to be a matter of time before that final flame vanished on them. After the fourth room, they were forced to realize that the earth spirit was not about to let them go any time soon. By the seventh room, they knew that it was just biding its time, that it was trying to wear them down. It only needed them to make one more mistake, to fail completely after several grueling hours of trying their best to succeed, and their hopes would vanish along with the guiding flame that they were working so hard to protect. And in the end, that's exactly what happened.

Shrouded as they were within the pitch black of the unlighted room, the opening to the next chamber was still very much apparent to them. This newest room was somehow lit by an unknown source of light, and all this despite that there no longer remained any floating fires to guide the way. Tensions were high as they awaited whatever punishment that was to come with their failure to solve their most recent riddle. Yet, after a time, they noticed neither change nor activity within their surroundings. Save for the chamber beyond their current location having revealed itself, all was as calm and as peaceful as one could have hoped for.

Sakura breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "At least there isn't anything bad happening, like the walls caving in on us."

"Be careful of what you say," Syaoran warned her, "It could still very well happen."

Then, Tomoyo brought their attention to another matter, "Something isn't right... the next room doesn't have anything in it."

Eriol moved through the archway and into the next room with a bit more confidence than the others were willing to display, and started examining the room for himself as the others followed in slowly behind him with worried expressions. The first thing they took to noticing was that Tomoyo had been right – the room was completely barren. The lack of objects to represent a puzzle was overly obvious, at least, but that wasn't what had them truly worried. As the archway behind them re-materialized back into solid rock, as all the others had done, they soon found that there was no riddle-inscribed plaque inset to any of the walls.

Sakura checked about her again to make sure she had seen right, "But, wait. If there's no riddle here, then what are we supposed to do?"

"The puzzle may be something that we cannot detect. Either that, or there is no puzzle at all, seeing as we failed the last one," Eriol surmised. Already, he was scanning one wall with both his hands and his mind, "Whichever is the case, we should make a thorough search of the area."

After a short time of pacing back and forth along one wall, in an attempt to try and find anything of value or import, Syaoran just had to ask, "Any idea of what we're looking for?"

After her third round of searching along the wall where the entrance had been, Tomoyo finally gave up, "I can't find anything over here," she said.

"No luck over here, either," Syaoran called, then turned to the other two, "How about you two?"

Sakura and Eriol both shook their heads, though they still continued on with their searching. Frustrated with the lack of results, Syaoran eased himself onto the ground, leaning back against his wall while being mindful of his stone-cold arm. Thanks to Eriol, his broken limb had been placed into a sort of cryonic stasis by the use of the Freeze card, and so it no longer hurt as much as it had originally. Lacking any available materials with which to make a sling or splint, at Tomoyo's request, they had resorted to using magic to ease the pain and slow the damage. That being said, however, it still didn't stop the dull aching that was constantly creeping its way through the freezing and into his shoulder and upper body. It was a constant reminder of his delicate condition.

He grunted slightly with the extra effort of situating himself, which served to divert Eriol's attention away from what was so far proving to be a fruitless search.

"Let me see that arm again," Eriol requested, kneeling down to probe through the damaged bone and tissue once more. What he found was not to his liking.

He released a heavy sigh before revealing his newest findings, "I was afraid of that. Despite the freezing that should have held your wound in check, the fractures are still continuing to spread. It's making the remaining connection between the two parts of your humerus more fragile by the minute. If we remain here too much longer, I doubt that even the best of doctors would be able to mend it. We have _got_ to get you out of here, soon."

This news was more than enough to pull Sakura away from her own search, "You mean he could lose his arm!?"

"Not physically, I don't think" Eriol replied, "Yet there may not be a difference, in the end. At this rate, he will likely lose his ability to maintain any effective motor control over it. Because of the multitude of fractures that are continually forming, the two ends of the break are no longer as clean as I had first detected. The now-jagged ends of the bone are, as such, tearing away at the muscle every time he tries to move about. Even with the Freeze limiting his arm's movements, there is still a slight amount of shifting every time he does something. If this continues, the damage done to him will be irreparable."

"Isn't there anything else we can do!?" Sakura asked desperately, despite that she had asked that exact same question just before they had turned Syaoran's arm into a block of ice. The response that she received back was also the exact same as the one that she had gotten back then, too: an uncomfortably still silence, and faces too ashamed to look her in the eye and tell her that it was hopeless.

With Syaoran once again resigned to his fate, he settled himself quietly off to the side, while the rest of the group continued their examinations of the room. They checked and re-checked through every crack and bump in the walls and floor that presented itself, meticulously searching their environment without any regard for the time that it was taking them to do so. In the process, they found no more than the obvious – solid rock.

On the topic of time, it was almost eight-thirty in the evening, by Syaoran's watch. They had spent almost four hours within this earthen realm already. It was then a half an hour later, after having arrived in this specific room, when Sakura dropped herself down beside Syaoran in defeat. Tomoyo soon joined in beside her, for the same reason, though Eriol was content to continue on with his rounds.

It was all Sakura could do, at that point, not to lose herself to the despair that was welling up within her. She knew that there had to be a way out, and the fact that nothing she could think up or do was helping just made matters worse for her. She had even done a quick scan of her cards twice over in her head, hoping that one of them could maybe shed some light on all of this. A couple of them had seemed like possible candidates, too, but the only problem there was that she had so far been unable to find any useful targets with which to set her cards against.

Not only that, but time was also another big factor that was working against them as well, considering how long they had remained entrapped within the spirit's grasp. Sakura, herself, wasn't sure of how much longer she would be able to keep up her efforts without becoming tired, to say nothing of how everyone else, especially Syaoran, must have been faring. If anything, she could already tell that she was beginning to wear out, but she didn't quite feel like camping it out while within the grasp of an opponent that was dead-set on defeating her. The fear of finally being caught within this place was more than enough to keep her awake, anyway. Even so, it was all she could do just to stifle a few yawns here and there.

Then there was also the fact that there were people back in the real world that would soon begin to worry about them, if they had not started to do so already. Her own father would likely realize what she was getting into, since he was actually aware of her activities, and so she knew that he wouldn't go into a panic any time soon. Both Eriol and Syaoran didn't have anyone they had to check in with, with Eriol's guardians having returned to England to search Clow Reed's library for clues to their "rampaging spirits" crisis, and Syaoran's old caretaker Wei having stayed behind in Hong Kong. Now that she was thinking on it, those few people were not actually the real problem.

Tomoyo's mother, on the other hand, was a completely different matter altogether. She was still being kept unawares that her daughter was the self-designated chronicler of the local sorceress's activities. Then, after all of that, there was still the problem of their friends that they had left behind at the museum. _They_ were likely to have already sounded the alarm about the missing half of the entourage, which was ultimately going to lead to search parties, police investigations, and generally just people getting involved in things Sakura did not want them getting involved in. It was going to be hell to have to deal with the results of all of that, and she knew it.

Her hands idly sought to distract her from the thought of being surrounded by inescapable rock and magic, yet finding only more rock just made her all the more aware of her inability to escape. Regardless, she soon found herself playing with a small pebble. Rolling it between her fingers, looking at it, anything she could come up with to help her mind relax. Yet the same dull brown color, the same unassuming texture, and the sheer familiarity of it all made her want to never to see the inside of a cavern ever again. She mindlessly tossed the pebble off to the side, as a result, in a way wishing that it was capable of taking away with it the stone-lined walls that constantly surrounded her. Her hand came back to rest upon the ground, afterwards, and as if to test her limits, it found another pebble. She picked it up in her tightening fist, taking with it a handful of dust in the process.

Then she stopped herself. Dust... pebble... ground... all of these came from within the earth. Within the earth... within... inside?

"That's it!"

Her sudden, silence-shattering outburst surprised even Eriol to the point of a heart attack, and he had been on the other side of the room. For those that had been resting right beside her, the scare was almost unbearable. Though they quickly replaced their fears with excitement, as they found a spark of hope written across her face. They immediately knew, from that look, that something had changed for the better.

"What is it? What's going on?" Eriol asked her, crossing over to where she was resting.

Sakura leapt up to her feet in a hurry, with Tomoyo quickly following along behind her, and Syaoran stepping up as best as he could. She looked to Eriol with her energetic smile, all while she was pulling a card out into the open, "I might be able to figure this one out!"

He wanted to inquire further, but saw a glimpse of the card that she had pulled from her pocket and immediately knew what she was thinking. Such an idea, he had thought, would have been way too complex a feat to work against such powerful beings as they were up against. As such, he had completely discarded the thought almost immediately. Indeed, Sakura had thought similarly, that it would be too tricky to just freely release Earthy's power and make it overtake their environment. Not only would the magic have no definitive objective to focus its power upon, but it would also be harder to control without that focal point. Past experiences had taught her that out-of-control cards could be quite troublesome in the best of scenarios, and she didn't even want to think of what would happen were she to lose control of a truly powerful card, but perhaps it was their only choice left to them, now.

"Unlock for us that which bars our path! Earthy!" she cried, accenting the incantation's name as she struck at the card's sealed form with her recently-released wand. Loosed to their environment, the avatar of the earth examined its surroundings once before dispelling itself into an ethereal mist, and from there it forced its power to merge into the walls all around them. The changes to their environment, that followed after the Earthy's actions, were immediately apparent to everyone. The color of the rock soon changed its hue to a more lively shade of brown, as opposed to the dullish gray-brown of before that had lacked a certain vibrancy to it. It was a color more suited to that of the natural earth.

At the same time, a shimmering light appeared on the far wall in the form of an archway. The shimmering intensified into a bright glow, flashing once before subsiding to reveal the pathway to a new chamber. When the light show finally dissipated, the ethereal mist of the Earthy card returned itself to its sealed form and flew into Sakura's hand under its own power.

"Even in failure, it sought to test us," Eriol muttered, attempting to make sense of it all for himself, "and with as simple an answer as that, no less."

Sakura stared at her card kindly, placing a silent word of thanks to it before she spoke her thoughts, "At first it seemed too risky of an option, because I didn't want to release a card without something to set it against. But I figured, since they're both the same element anyway, that I could use the ground itself as a target and just release Earthy's magic freely into it. I'm glad it worked out as it did."

Her celebration, as well earned as it was, was found to be short-lived, when a singular flame flared into being at the entrance to the next chamber. Brought to a stunned silence, the four of them could only watch as it danced momentarily in front of them before flying away into the room beyond, hovering in place a ways out before shooting up and away from view. They held their position only long enough to assure Syaoran's condition as acceptable, and then they shot off after it.

The rock face restoring itself behind them was fully ignored, with their attention instead having been taken by the scope of their next challenge. Before them ran a grand, marble staircase leading downwards, and beyond that – being brightly lit from above by a legion of dancing flames – was set a rock-walled labyrinth unmatched in size by comparison to anything they had ever seen before. Sakura dared to think that it perhaps dwarfed even her Maze card's powers by a considerable amount. Though it was narrow in width by comparison to that same card, for it didn't seem to be too much wider than the end-to-end length of Seijou High's soccer field, the labyrinth drew itself far into the distance. The dark horizon at the far end was met only by the confusing twists and turns within the architecture.

Then their goal was made clear to them, in the form of a bright light suddenly emanating from the distant side of the massive underground chamber. Even though they could not pinpoint its source, they could still somehow tell that it was emanating from the far end of the labyrinth, and that they had to make their way towards that light in order to finally escape. As this was likely to be their final hope for being able to free themselves from the earth spirit's hold, they allowed themselves no doubts in this regard.

"I'm guessing we have to go through that?" Sakura wondered aloud, still trying to size up the maze before her.

"We shouldn't enter it until we know what we're getting into," Syaoran cautioned, "We don't know what awaits us in there, be it more riddles or some kind of a trap, and we have no idea how far it will be before we can make it to the other end."

Eriol nodded in agreement, "I have to concur. It will not be much longer before we will require some rest. Also, I fear for the strain that such an amount of excessive traveling will put onto your injury."

Syaoran countered Eriol's concern almost immediately, "No, my condition can't be helped. We will have to keep going at some point, and my arm is only going to get worse, regardless of whether we wait or proceed onwards. No, our real concern should be on how we're going to proceed through to the other end. It may look normal, but this maze was produced by magical means. We don't even know if the spirit will play fair with us."

That happy-go-lucky grin of Eriol's, the one that Syaoran despised so much, appeared before him, "Don't worry about that. I have an idea on how to counter whatever changes might be made to the labyrinth. As well, if I remember my stories right, it would seem that we have an expert on mazes with us, as well," he noted, indicating Tomoyo with a tip of his head, "If we work together on this one, we can make it out safely, regardless of what is thrown at us."

"We all know how good Tomoyo is with mazes," Syaoran agreed, causing the girl to blush slightly in embarrassment, "but what idea makes your plan so foolproof?"

Instead of a reply, Eriol turned to Sakura to form a request, "Sakura, draw out and summon your Arrow card, please."

Taken by surprise at the sudden request, she hesitated only for a moment before doing as she was asked. A cry of the card's name and a swirl of magically-induced winds saw the release of the Arrow card to its true physical form. When all had finally settled down, what stood before them was a diminutive, pale-skinned child dressed in blue, coming equipped with her trademark bow and glowing arrow.

Eriol turned to the awakened card, greeting it with a serious expression instead of his previous, cheerful demeanor, "Card once created by Clow, now born under the light of the Stars. I would beseech you, through the agreement of your master, that you grant us the use of your powers."

Arrow tilted her head up, seeking such an agreement from Sakura and receiving a reassuring nod in return, before she granted Eriol his wish with an affirming nod of its own. Glad that the card would agree to work with him, he continued his speech, "Before us here lies a labyrinth created of magical means. I would ask that you act as our compass. Set your arrows to the firmament as we travel, so that the hunter's senses would guide us by these markers, and keep our direction true."

It wasn't often that Sakura got to hear her cards talk, as they often communed to her either through her Mirror card, or through empathic feeling. Thus, when the Arrow card's child-like voice replied to Eriol's request, she found herself momentarily surprised that her card had actually spoken, "Our direction shall be as true as my arrow's aim."

Pleased with the result, Eriol finally offered his more genuine smile to the card, "Good. Then, with everyone's permission, and if our guides are ready, we should probably start out as soon as possible. Despite the risks, there really isn't any use in us standing here and further pondering our situation. We will also just have to take rest within the labyrinth itself, should we come to require it."

With everyone in agreement, they took to the staircase and descended their way towards the labyrinth's entrance. Eriol and Tomoyo made to take the lead of the group to guide them, while Sakura remained close to Syaoran's side as they followed along. The Arrow card thus took up a position as the rear guard, taking but a moment to fire the first of many arrows into the ground before passing into the labyrinth's walls for herself.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	52. Concern

_6-7: Concern_

The next time Syaoran thought to look at his watch, it was almost eleven o'clock. This meant that they had spent well over two hours traversing through the endless turns and corners of the labyrinth, and almost seven hours all together within the earth spirit's little playground. Group morale was considerably low, with no end in sight to their ongoing trials, and it was only a matter of time before they would be forced to confront the spirit itself. Just how much longer were they going to have to endure this place?

He could feel himself growing ever more tired for every few minutes that passed them by, a sure sign that things were going from bad to worse. At first, he had attributed this to the constant aching that his shoulder and upper body were forcing him to suffer. His arm was completely numb, to be sure, but that wasn't stopping the muscles from reacting to the damage (which, in turn, was slowly but surly wearing him down). But after a time, he came to realize that this wasn't what he was getting so tired over. He knew this because it wasn't a normal kind of tired that he was feeling, like the kind that one would feel after staying up too long past bed time, and that had him worried. Syaoran was stubborn enough, admittedly, to not want to complain about it, and he knew that Eriol wouldn't complain about his own end of this problem either. It was the two girls with them that he was the most worried about, and of how much longer they could hold out.

Behind him, the diminutive Arrow spoke up as though she were reading his thoughts, "Don't worry, we seem to be making good progress. From what I could see atop the staircase, and judging by the distance from my first arrow marker, we should be at least one third of the way through."

"How long have we been walking?" Sakura asked Syaoran quietly. The weariness that was thickly lining her voice was painfully evident to him, as she slurred out each word sleepily. Syaoran didn't want to be right about how they were all faring, but he feared that the answer was "not well".

"Just over two hours, I think," he told her, glancing at his watch again to verify the time, "If we can keep up this pace, and if Arrow is right, we should be getting near to the end in about three to four hours more. Pending we don't run in to any problems, that is."

Syaoran was soon proven right, when Sakura stopped unexpectedly and leaned into the nearby wall to rest. He moved to her side almost immediately, circling his good arm gently around her shoulders supportively while cursing under his breath the truer meaning of the labyrinth that they inhabited. She was likely genuinely tired, and understandably so, but it also wasn't just her. They were all tired, granted, yet Sakura was never one to just stop and give up like that. This only further confirmed Syaoran's suspicions of their real reason for being here.

"Come on, hang in there..." he uttered to her quietly, though she only shook her head in response. She leaned into him silently instead of replying verbally, clinging tightly to herself.

Eriol, who had gone off to inspect the path ahead of them, took notice of Sakura's condition upon his return. Concerned for her well being, he spoke out, "This path leads to an open area, just up ahead. We'll use it as an encampment, and take rest there. Come."

Syaoran remained attached to Sakura's side, keeping his good arm wrapped about her shoulders as they made their way to the place that Eriol had described – a rectangular-shaped widening in the labyrinthine path, with only one other way out if they discounted the path that they had used to enter from. Once they had settled themselves into a corner of their new campground, Arrow ran off on her own to scout out the next few turns, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The ground was cold and uninviting to her, and yet Sakura could do little else other than to sit down and rest herself. While a source of heat was readily available from any of their particular fire magics, the Syaoran-made campfire did little to improve upon Sakura's increasing weariness. She succumbed to her need for rest before too much longer, sleeping soundly against Syaoran's side and leaving her remaining three companions to watch over her quietly.

"She must have really been tired," Tomoyo noted. Feeling a shiver run through her suddenly, despite the glow of the fire that was attempting to ward off the eerie chill that had worked its way into the air around them, she moved in closer to Sakura's unoccupied side to try and preserve some body heat.

"No, it is not just her. There is something else in here, and it is working a counter-spell against us."

Syaoran nodded in agreement, when Eriol's words helped to prove what he had originally surmised, and continued along with that train of thought, "Something, somewhere else within this place, is draining all local magical energy into itself. It's been sapping away at all of us ever since we stepped through that rock archway back in the museum."

Tomoyo's confusion was understandable, "But you two are not worn out, right? And I feel just fine. Why is it just her?"

Eriol sat himself down before the fire, as well, before beginning his explanation of what they meant, "It is because of our extensive training with magic that we remain relatively untouched. I hold within me the unmatched powers of Clow Reed, and could have readily guarded against such a drain as an infant. Syaoran, here, has had near-exhaustive training in the elemental arts, due to his family lineage, and can just as easily guard his spirit against such a violation. Though we, ourselves, may eventually begin to succumb to the effects of this place, much like Sakura has just now, it will take a great deal longer for it to actually happen.

"You, on the other hand, have no magical powers whatsoever to draw from. But even a human without sorcerous ability still has a basic spiritual energy – the soul – from which to draw. You, too, will begin to notice the effects, sooner or later. Though, by comparison to the rest of us, any detrimental effects you may notice will still be minimal at best.

"For Sakura, however, the drain has been much more pronounced. She has not had the mental training and practical experience that Syaoran or I have had, and thus is far more susceptible to the spiritual afflictions of whatever it is that is here with us – whether it be the spirit itself, or another one of its machinations, I cannot say. With rest, she may be able to continue, as I believe that sleep will restore her magical power faster than whatever nearby entity can drain it, but she will not be able to maintain her stamina for as long as she normally could. I fear that this will severely hamper our movements, in the long run. In retrospect, I should have been the one to summon Arrow as our guide, instead of asking her to do it. I just wish that I could blame Clow Reed's influence on his memories for my error in judgement.

"In the end, it all amounts to one thing: the earth spirit is trying to soften us up for when it finally moves to confront us face to face," he added on. He then paused to think on something, and voiced a revision to his thoughts, "No, I take that back. It has _already _succeeded in 'softening us up'. I fear that we would be of little challenge to it were we to engage it now."

Tomoyo looked upon Sakura with a deep sense of relief, glad that this would not be turned into a true race against time. That said, she still wasn't too happy with the fact that, once again, Sakura was the primary target of all the troubles that were being placed upon them. She honestly wished that there was something more she could do for her dearest friend.

Eriol allowed for a moment to pass, in order to let his words sink in, before he posed to them their next course of action, "We will rest here for a time, and begin moving again when Sakura has awakened on her own. We will let the Arrow card stand watch for now, and I will ask it to reseal itself later so that Sakura may sleep more soundly. The two of you should try to get some sleep, as well. I will return shortly."

He then left them to rest, though he ensured that they would actually attempt to take the chance to sleep before he walked on ahead past the next turn and towards where Arrow had assumed sentry duty. He approached silently behind her, well aware that she could still sense his approach.

"There is something else here," she told him quietly, never taking her eyes away from the faraway, three-way intersection that sat off in the distance, "It hunts, and it knows we are here. It has a taste for my mistress's power, I fear."

He stood beside the card and stared towards the intersection for himself, wondering if perhaps something was suddenly going to come charging around the corner. He crossed his arms and continued to stand patiently in watch, even though Arrow was to have taken the first shift.

Eriol soon enough felt the need to break the small silence that had built up around them, "There is nothing to be done except allow them their rest. We do not require it as much, for you are not mortal, and I can draw upon techniques far beyond their understanding. Yet will we be granted enough time, or will it find us first?"

The Arrow looked up to Eriol, and examined his face closely. Even though she was now faithfully sworn to the service of her mistress, she could still remember the few times that Clow Reed had summoned her up for whatever purpose he had deemed necessary for her. One of those times had been during a rather trying crisis, which had also been the first time she had seen her previous master pensive to the point of worrying.

What she saw on Eriol's face, now, was nothing short of what she had seen on Clow Reed's face back then.

"You are still mortal, however," she told him, "and at the very least, your physical body will soon require sleep, just like the others. I can draw upon the residual traces of my master's power for a time, and remain in service to her even though she is weakened. Take your rest, and I will awaken you for your turn at watch when I can no longer remain within my true form."

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	53. Labyrinth's Beast

_6-8a: Labyrinth's Beast  
_

When next he awoke, Eriol found himself being roughly shaken about by an anxious-looking Arrow.

"It is close! We cannot remain here!" she cried at him, before rushing back to her post at the far end of their campsite.

Indeed, Eriol could already sense the trace presence of another being nearby. It was strong and dark, similar to all the other spirits that they had fought against before. Yet at the same time, it was also completely different. It had no meaningful substance to it, as if what he was sensing was merely an illusion. Just like the mechanical orb that they had found previously, he could sense only earth and rock and nothing else. It felt as if his mind was playing tricks on him. Still, while under the influence of the earth spirit's power, they could take nothing for granted. He roused himself from his spot by the fire, and in turn roused the others to consciousness. He was gladdened to see Sakura rise quickly, a sign that the rest she had taken to – at least three hours, by Syaoran's watch – had done her some good.

He advised them of the situation, "Something approaches, and I fear it is something we cannot fight. We must flee, and quickly."

He would have then acted upon his words, were it not for the sudden yet faint vibrations that he could now feel through the ground. Quick and constant, he knew that whatever had sought them through the maze had caught enough of their scent, magical or otherwise, to track them down with ease. Even through the maze's myriad turns and dead ends, it was closing in on them. This alone made him want to act all the more, except that by now the vibrations had turned into miniature earthquakes, and they were growing stronger with each step that the creature took. It was too late to run.

They all turned in a panic at the strum of Arrow's bow, as she let loose an arrow down the corridor that she was guarding. Multitudes of thunk-like sounds soon followed from beyond the labyrinth's rock walls, as the card's magicked ammunition multiplied and found her target. A powerful braying came from whatever it was that Arrow had attacked, causing her to grin with confidence as she made to loose another attack. Earthquake-like steps sounded out in a rush before she could strike again, one loud rumbling right after the other coming from beyond the turn. Her confidence was quickly shattered as Arrow attempted to dodge away from the incoming charge at the last second, but in the end, she was nowhere near as fast as she needed to be.

The creature that Arrow had attacked charged into sight and drove straight through Arrow's position, ramming both its massive self and the diminutive card into the hard rock wall ahead of it. The force of the impact not only knocked away a sizable chunk of the labyrinth's wall, causing large clouds of dust and rock fragments to fly about everywhere and hide away its impossible size, but also severed Arrow's body almost clean in half even as she was sent flying along with that same collection of debris. It was a disturbingly gruesome sight to behold, the results of which had Arrow immediately converting itself back into its sealed form. When Arrow's two-dimensional form landed back into Sakura's hand, she could feel the coldness of the card's diminished strength, and could sense the fear and suffering that Arrow had felt prior to deforming. Even the picture upon the card itself was mutilated beyond description, with the left side of Arrow's torso having been torn wide open by some kind of impalement.

The roar of the crumbling and crashing of walls and rock quickly died away, leaving the pending absolution of silence to be held at bay only by the invading creature's labored breaths of huffs and snorts. They were granted a full view of what it was they now faced, when it finally stepped through the remaining dust clouds and faced towards them, ever following the scent of its prey. It was like a mutated bull, standing tall atop its bovine-like hind legs, except for that its arms and upper body were instead shaped like that of a human's. It's entire body, apart from the elongated, pointed pair of ivory horns that were mounted atop its bull-shaped head, was covered in a thick, dark blue fur hide, a color which heavily accented its deep, blood-red eyes. It was in those eyes that they all saw the longing for bloodshed, and it was then that they knew they were in trouble.

"A bull in the labyrinth? I would have preferred a three-headed hound, personally," Eriol muttered, though the meaning of his words were lost on everyone. Not that they really cared, for at the moment they were being stared at by a creature of immeasurable size and strength.

The creature snorted sharply, as if in rebuttal to Eriol's comment, and began scuffing its hoof along the ground as a warning of things to come. Syaoran and Eriol immediately went on the defensive, standing in front of Sakura and Tomoyo protectively. Sakura wanted to protest being protected like that, and would have taken her place alongside them, but ultimately she did not. What stopped her was that she strangely felt like she hadn't slept in a week, despite having just woken up from the longest nap of her life. She just couldn't muster the energy or courage to step up, but why?

The bull-creature scraped its hoof across the ground again, triggering Syaoran's attack.

"Raitei, shôrai!" he shouted, sending in stream after stream of elemental lighting against the creature, as much as his power would allow him. Eriol summoned his own Thunder card into the fray a split second after, lighting the area with a blinding display of magic and electricity. The multiple streams of lightning combined together into a singular force, split apart at the last millisecond, and struck the creature at its highest point. The forked bolt of lightning attacked the creature's curved horns like they were a pair of huge lightning rods.

The creature bellowed deeply in pain, a sound not much unlike that of a rampaging bull. It quivered violently, swinging its arms and head to and fro against the attack with a violence to equal that same analogy. Shards of rock and debris were sent flying out of the walls as its muscle-bound arms and equally-thick horns struck hard against any and all obstacles in their paths. It brayed again, more fiercely than the first time, and shot its whole body outwards as if it had been straining against several lengths of rope tied about it. A short burst of energy on the creature's behalf followed suit, which saw to the two lightning attacks somehow being completely annulled.

Taken aback, the two defenders nonetheless allowed little time for the creature to counterattack. Pulling another card from his side, Eriol released the power of his Sword. His card's power transformed the Sun Staff into an oversized, onyx-colored zweihander that easily would have towered over him standing vertically, and yet Eriol somehow managed to wield it with an incredible ease. With Syaoran still at his side, they charged at the creature directly, their respective weapons brandished before them with the intent to kill.

It only took a single swing of the bull's oversized right arm to send Syaoran flying back the way he had come, but the hellish creature was forced to catch the downward swing of Eriol's zweihander Sword with its opposite hand. The attack drew a considerable amount of black-tinted blood – Eriol could have sworn that it was actually oil – as the edge of the blade ate its way deep into the creature's palm and halfway down its forearm. He grinned slightly at the success of his attack, and then wiped his proud smirk back off of his face almost immediately after.

Even with the ferocity of Eriol's attack, the bull creature seemed to pay absolutely no heed to the two halves of its injured hand. Rather, it snorted almost disdainfully at Eriol's pitiful attempt, and then flung the Sword aside like a simple twig, sending Eriol along with it in the process. The dark-haired sorcerer recovered from the counterattack with a roll, leapt to his feet, and without missing a beat charged forth again. His Sword fell in behind him as he committed himself to the attack once more.

At the last second, he swung his Sword up high and used its momentum to jump to an unnatural height, before pulling both of his arms forward in a massive swing that was sure to split the creature's entire body in two. However, had he been paying attention to his opponent, instead of being purely focused on the attack, Eriol would have seen the blue-colored fist speeding towards him that soon had him flying back the way he had come. His Sword reformed both itself and his key into their sealed forms long before he had even rolled to a stop.

He forced himself back to his feet with a grunt through gritted teeth, completely amazed that he didn't have any broken bones after a counterattack like that. Syaoran, however, who was still struggling heavily just to stand up, was not nearly as fortunate. Eriol could see that the man's right arm had suffered greatly from the impact of his landing and consequent rolls along the ground. Indeed, it was now completely bent backwards at a point where an arm should not be allowed to bend, with a considerable amount of reddened swelling and bulging due to what must have been internal bleeding. Eriol wondered if there was still a chance that–.

He wasn't given time to finish his thought, with quaking footsteps signaling the bull-creature's next charge. He leapt well clear of its path before it was even close to approaching, and ensured that Syaoran was still far out of the way, but he knew that the creature's aim would be straight for the weakest of their group – Sakura. Horror quickly struck home as Eriol turned about to find that Sakura was already weakening from the creature's presence, with her having to put in a visible effort just to remain standing. Not only that, but Tomoyo was also there, trying to support her, and at this rate would also end up being caught within the creature's coming attack. Reacting to the situation, Eriol shot a bolt of raw magic from his hands, landing the red flare of magic square upon the creature's backside as it passed him by. It produced little more than a soft grunt.

"Jump!" Sakura called instinctively, summoning her card's power without her wand and using the sheer need to escape her impending doom to command the magic instead. She quickly latched onto Tomoyo by the waist, and blindly shot off hard to her left. While this quick thinking ultimately spared the two girls from any fatal implications, it was not enough to fully evade the bull creature's wild assault.

Sakura landed easily enough on the far side of the area, yet with a piercing scream, she collapsed to the ground immediately after shifting her body weight onto her right leg. She just barely avoided taking Tomoyo down with her. From there, she found that her right leg was bleeding openly and profusely, and that there was a large, gaping hole in her calf where the bull's sharpened horns had torn straight through it. She could almost see right down to the bone.

The Jump card dispelled from sight of its own accord, the small wings on her shoes vanishing without a trace, yet Sakura paid no heed to this in light of the horror of being able to see the insides of her leg. But as the Jump's miniature wings disappeared from view, she could feel the weariness beginning to overtake her again, and all despite that her leg wound now felt like someone had used a red-hot, rusted saw blade to create it. This unnatural tiredness was tempting her to fall back into sleep, even as Tomoyo was doing her utmost to stop the bleeding by tying off the blood flow and covering the leg wound with hastily torn strips of their clothing.

Ultimately, Sakura knew that something was wrong with how tired she was feeling, regardless of her injury or of how long they had been out and about, but for such a low-level card to drain her so drastically...

"Fog!" came the cry, and even through her weariness and pain, Sakura realized that it was Eriol's voice. He had summoned one of his changed cards. As the echoes of the word faded away, the room about them was immediately shrouded within a thick white mist, leaving the bull creature's form as little more than a shadowy silhouette within the clouds. Interestingly enough, she could still see Syaoran and Eriol clearly through the magical veil, watching as the latter assisted the former to stand. She was momentarily revolted to see Syaoran's arm in its impossible condition, but was forced to ignore it in favor of the roaring fires of pain from her own personal injury that Tomoyo had just finished working on.

The two boys made their way over to where Sakura had collapsed, though by now she had forced her way onto her good leg with Tomoyo's help. Eriol looked her over but once, then issued his orders, "Tomoyo, can you support her? We need to run, now!"

Tomoyo nodded sharply, and following his lead, they all took off after Eriol as they escaped the Fog-covered section of the labyrinth. Taking to the path that Arrow had originally guarded, they continued onwards through all sorts of random turns with as much speed as their injuries would allow.

After what felt like hours of running, though by Syaoran's watch they had not even been moving for three minutes, they slowed their pace to a fast walk. Their fear of encountering that bull-creature again was more than enough to keep Sakura ignorant of her debilitation, and with Tomoyo's continued aid it allowed her to keep up easily enough with the others.

"What was that card you just used?" Syaoran asked, once he had caught most of his breath again.

"It was one of the changed cards," Eriol replied, "the Fog. It is similar to the Mist that it replaced, in that it creates a cloud of mist to surround the target. But instead of corroding the target, the Fog instead confuses it, forcing it to lose all sense of direction and time. Even if that creature's power manages to eat away the card's magic and cause it to revert back to its sealed form, it will still be a while before it can find its way out of the clouds that now surround it."

Taking what relief they could from such a statement, they still kept to their pace. Winding down long passages and around endless corners and turns, they trusted solely in Eriol's ability to keep their direction true. They wandered as such for a while, stopping just once and only long enough to administer what little first aid they could to the injured, and then they were rushing onwards once again. For as serious as their medical requirements were (Sakura, in particular, had already paled considerably in skin color from all the blood loss), it just didn't compare with the threat that they had left behind, and of their need to escape it.

At an uncertain point of time along the way, Eriol suddenly stopped in his tracks. He gave them no reason or indication as to why he had halted, but rather turned about on them to stare directly back the way they had come. His eyes were bulging wide with an emotion that they had never seen in him before. An emotion that their normally nigh-omniscient friend, Eriol Hiiragizawa, should not have been capable of.

Fear.

"Fog was...!? Impossible..."

At that quiet utterance, they all turned about to sight the object of his fear, and found themselves also struck with terror at what stood further down the corridor that they had just traversed. The bull-creature, by some unknown work of secrecy or magic, was right there before them, staring them down coldly with its beady, blood-red eyes. This time, it held in its hands a massive, ornately gold-worked axe, the kind that one would normally see in action movies. They also noted that the arm that Eriol had almost sliced in half was pretty much completely healed. It's breathing was not even labored from the effort of having had to catch up to them.

Rather, it had not been trying to catch up to them at all, they realized. It was just there, now, appearing to them from out of nowhere. That was the only way to explain its ability to circumvent the powers that Eriol had attributed to the Fog card. There was no way that they could escape from something that could just drop in on them like that. By this point, they were all completely worn out, regardless, and were working only on the energy that the continued fear of death had driven into them. But now that this fear was staring at them directly, they no longer had the energy to pointlessly run. The chase was over.

The bull creature scraped harshly at the ground with its hoof, even as it raised its axe high to strike a killing blow. All of it was a clear signaling of its impending charge. In response, the four helpless humans grouped together for the moral support that was no longer there, and cowered as one in anticipation of the inevitable.


	54. The Bard's Lament

_6-8b: The Bard's Lament_

The bull creature scraped harshly at the ground with its hoof, even as it raised its axe to strike a killing blow. All of it was a clear signaling of its impending charge. In response, the four helpless humans grouped together for the moral support that was no longer there, and cowered as one in anticipation of the inevitable.

But its attention was taken from them before it could even begin its assault, when its head turned upwards and away from them to stare towards the pitch-black sky above them, and the legion of flames therein that had lit the way. The bull-like being sniffed and stared far into that distance above them, seemingly distracted by some invisible entity. It cocked its head to the side, which made Eriol note that it was listening to something. Then, when he heard that something for himself, he grinned.

The others soon heard it as well: a low, droning hum that was coming from all around them. Their fears of their coming deaths momentarily waylaid, they listened intently to the droning, and along with their foe stared into the flame-dotted blackness above them in awe as they soon heard another sound cry out through the air.

The melody that had brought itself to them was slow and sorrowful, emotional, carrying across their ears with a sound much like one would hear from a bagpiper. It flowed above them calmly, clear and precise, perhaps as a lament to some unknown hero fallen in battle. They all stood in reverence as the song paid up its due tribute through a eulogy of notes and scales. Even the bull-creature had been taken in by the sweeping melodies, standing silently with its axe in hand, its prey forgotten. The five who listened along lost all sense of time, their former purposes of kill or be killed forgotten before the majestic trills and flowing melodies of the piper.

Then, as if to take up the song for itself, the very earth around them began to hum along with the unseen piper. The rock walls of the labyrinth played out a soft yet powerful underlying tone that, with its overwhelming grace, almost shook the foundations of the very rock around them with its resulting vibrations. The moment could have been describable as only one thing: magical.

A soft snort quickly made the four humans aware of the fact that they were still being stared at by a deadly bull-creature, and they turned to face it once again. Yet this time, instead of a fear of the inevitable, or even the determination to try and defeat it, they now knew only the despair and longing that the bull-creature also felt. Their new, unified feelings were marked by the single tear that rolled away from the creature's deep-red eyes and through its fur even as it fell to its knees with a loud crash.

Having witnessed this, the four were soon beset by a powerful, glowing white light behind them, silhouetting the creature's form until they could tell no more of it other than its outlining features. They turned about, and through that light they found the doorway that they had so desperately sought, the one that had originally laid in wait for them at the end of the labyrinth. They all took to it without hesitation, each of them instinctively knowing that this was the way out. This was the way towards safety.

When they could again see through the light that had surrounded them, they found themselves within a grand, stone-worked hall. It had no walls to bar their path, for the massive chamber stretched off far into the darkness in all four directions, and instead only contained an innumerable amount of majestically carved pillars that stood taller than their eyes could see. Then they realized that there were no visible lights with which to see by, and that they were instead surrounded within a sort of ambient glow.

"So now, where are we?" Syaoran asked quietly. Eriol only shrugged, but then turned sharply ahead into the darkness as footsteps brought their attention to a shadowed figure approaching them. This figure greeted them with the answer to their question.

"Ye bein' in a hall o' my makin'," came its rough and thickly-accented (Scottish?) voice, "an' aye, I'm the one what brung ye here, givin' ye an escape from the dangers o' that maze, and its Minotaur guardian. I'm also bein' the one that ye seek to defeat!"

The figure to which they now owed their lives stepped out of the shadows and into the glow around them, revealing itself as a short and stocky old man no taller than that of a seven year old child. It wore only a plain, brown druidic robe, which blended in almost perfectly with its earth-toned skin. The wide and overgrown grayish beard that it bore hid most of the lower half of its face, and reached down almost to its paunchy waistline.

Syaoran and Eriol both immediately took up the defensive. With his sword set as well as possible in his off-hand, Syaoran inquired carefully "If you're one of the elemental spirits, then why did you even bother to save us?"

"Because!" the short-figured old man heartily bellowed, "It was the Great Mother's will!"

The shock and confusion that it read on their faces was understandable, and to this, it explained its meaning, "The Great Mother, known to ye by plenty a name – Mother Earth, mother nature... e'en God, for some folk! – has pleaded to me endlessly from my speal of imprisonment, all's that ye be let to survive my trials. Yet fer a time, I dinnae listen as I ought. I was too o'erwhelmed by the all-consumin' power o' the dark one to be able to hear the lass... I rue that it has result'd in such harm for ye.

"Ye must be aware o' him now, for some o' my kin 'ave surely explained to ye o' our plight – he who controls our fates; he who craves ev'rythin' at the cost o' ev'rythin', with no regard fer the lifes that he wounds. His utmost will would cause the unravelin' of life itself.

"T'is true that, fer the longest time, I was his servant. My body imitates a sept o' humans that were very dear to me – ye call 'em 'dwarves'. Before his control o'er me began, I lived as their guardian deity. Then, you humans arrived to their lands, after your rise to power, an' enslaved them. Soon, they were e'en driven into extinction, their lands stripped barren an' left to be forgotten! My resultin' ill-will for man, from the loss o' my folk, made my mind wild an' feeble. That was when _he _found me. Enticin' me with his boons an' promises,I was soon under his thrall. Were it not for your fellow bard in the world above, I dinnae think I'd been able to gather my wits at all."

"I'm sorry for your loss, really," Syaoran remarked, fully aware that he sounded overly sarcastic (their enemy was, after all, drawling on and on while Sakura was standing there bleeding to death, and it didn't help that his arm felt like death itself was gnawing away at him), "but what does this have to do with us?"

"It has ev'rythin' to do with ye, because the one controllin' me seeks to have ye remov'd. All of ye, includin' your friend above, are the one stick in his path to get'in his last dream – the dream o' unification. E'en now, his whispers entice me to use the utmost o' my might to destroy ye where ye now stand. Yet thanks to the Great Mother's words, sent through the magic o' your bard friend's coronach, I'm now bein' able to counter his will."

"Our bard friend...?" Tomoyo repeated, "You mean that...?"

"It was Reios," Eriol answered to her, "He must have sounded the song that we just heard, lulling the monster to peacefulness and bringing our spirit here to its senses. I recognized the instrument that was playing, at the moment I heard the song reverberating through the caverns – uilleann pipes. We saw one of his companions setting up such an instrument, just before we left."

The spirit nodded to confirm Eriol's words, "Truly it was he, your third friend. He cannae have played the coronach himself, but the lad's link with the earth and the Light saw its melody wov'n into the very mid o' the planet itself. It was a woesome lilt, brung up from times of old. It r'minded me o' an old friend that lived several hundred of your years ago, from the Celtic lands, I believe. A god's rage, that one, and ugly like nothin' else to look at when he was off like that, but a dear friend, all's alike."

The dwarf-spirit caught itself rambling on about its memories, and coughed loudly in embarrassment, "Rather, it bein' the coronach what let the Great Mother sing through the madness, to fin'lly break the darkness within me mind. Oft'n t'was that she would speak to me through our element's bond, tryin' to remind me o' myself and her will, to keep me from sin before any o' this could befall ye. She slowly help'd me to see me errors, albeit that the dear lass was o'er late to keep any harm from ye..."

Slowly bowing its head, as if defeated, it lowered itself down onto its stocky-built knees, "I beseech your forgiveness for my transgress'ns, and pray tha' what wee bit I've done in good deed will sway ye minds. I accept due punishment as you would see fit."

Feeling the sincerity of the earth spirit's words, Sakura couldn't help but notice the slight tugging inside of her heart. Even as ill-conditioned as she was now, she felt that she could not leave such words alone, as they were. It just would not seem right. And so with a minor urging for Tomoyo's assistance, she hobbled her way closer to the dwarf-like spirit. Her shredded and bandaged leg heavily protested such movements, after having been allowed to remain blissfully stilled for such a long time, but this was something that she needed to do, and so she ignored it as much as she could.

Tomoyo helped her best friend move closer to their spirit foe, though she herself was decidedly uneasy about being so close to the one that was responsible for almost amputating Sakura's leg. Soon enough, they were standing directly overhead of the dwarf's stocky figure, and from there she held Sakura upright as the girl made to lean even closer towards the earth spirit.

"We don't want to punish you. We want to help," she told it, using a gentle half-whisper that the others could barely hear, "What if I told you that we could free you from your nightmare?"

The dwarf-spirit's head snapped up to her with gleaming eyes, wishing wholeheartedly that her words would play out as truth. It wanted to be released from its nightmare, this much was obvious. These people, these humans that it had come so close to killing, were still willing to show it compassion after everything it had put them through. Surely it could not have committed any more heinous a crime against them. And that she, of all people, would be willing to grant it such favors... it was almost too good to be true.

His pleading gaze said all of this to her, and it was all she needed to know. To that end, she turned herself about with Tomoyo's continued assistance, and in a few short hops was facing towards where Eriol was standing, "Eriol, could you help me out with this one? I don't think I could manage it, like this."

Understanding her request, Eriol released his key into its true form and took Sakura's place before the spirit, after the two girls had cleared out of the way. Once in place, he uttered out the incantation that was, by now, all too familiar to them, "Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Gaia, be disjoined!"

A twisting in the space before them, marked by a resounding implosion, saw the dwarf-spirit being taken into its crystalline form. Once again, the spell also left behind the essence of its spiritual power, in the form of a yellow aura. Eriol knelt to retrieve the orb from the ground, and stared at it mindlessly for a moment before handing it over to Sakura. She took to staring at it for a long moment herself, as she whispered to it the same thoughts of reassurance that she had given to all of the others. When she was done, she placed the orb back within Eriol's hands, who then turned back to finalize his task and dispel the aura.

_Hold, children._

Those words surrounded him and infused themselves into his mind before he could fully act, stopping his staff just short of scattering the earth spirit's power. Except that they weren't really words. Rather, they were not words as far as the literal definition of "word" went. They were more like thoughts, he felt, or perhaps like just a singular thought – the thought of an understanding of what had been said. He glanced around to his companions, finding that they were in an understandable state of confusion over what they had just experienced. At least they had also heard whatever it was that he had just heard, so he knew that he wasn't going crazy. But at the same time, that also meant that he fully understood what it was that they had just heard, and that had him slightly worried as to the "why" of it.

A gentle breeze struck up from the ground, stirring around and about their ankles gently. It was a refreshing sensation that brought back to them the zeal of life, coursing an unseen energy in through the soles of their feet and into the entirety of their bodies. It was as if their several hours of wandering had never happened, and that each of them had just woken up from a well-deserved night's rest. It was an exhilarating feeling, to say the least.

The wind below them then began to move about, as though it were sentient, coming to swirl gently below the spirit's residual aura. It rose and encompassed itself over that spiritual essence, swirling faster and faster to absorb into itself both the spirit's remaining power and the dust devil that it was creating in the process. Soon enough, the yellowish aura was floating as a unified part of the swirling mass of dust and earth and wind. The results of the merging caused the swirling dust devil to glow with a mystical light.

Then the dust devil was moving at a frightening pace, weaving and darting between them as if possessed by a purpose. Before any of them could react, it found itself swirling wildly about Sakura and Tomoyo's position. The glow of the spirit's aura increased more and more with each second that passed, creating the sense that it was building up to something. With the increasing light that it produced, so too did the speed of its whirling increase, up to the point that Tomoyo could no longer maintain her hold upon her friend. She was subsequently buffeted away from her place at Sakura's side.

Eriol made to intervene, once he had assured himself that Tomoyo was uninjured, but was also buffeted away as the dust devil shot away from Sakura without warning. In a lightning-fast move that none of them could keep up with, it had taken over Syaoran's position and was now spinning about him wildly much like it had done to Sakura. Hoping to engage it before it could dodge away again, Eriol raised a crimson-glowing hand to forcefully dispel whatever magic that was at work. He was just moments away from firing off his spell, when the sensation of understood thoughts entered into his mind again, distracting him from his task.

_He who is descended shall be reformed, for unnatural pain shall not be tolerated._

_She who dots the night shall be reformed, for unnatural power must not be allowed. _

_My children, do not let go of light and life, and all will be granted, in the end._

With the understanding of those words, there also came an end to the swirling mass of dust that had surrounded both Sakura and Syaoran in turn. The very first thing that Syaoran did, upon being freed from his temporary entrapment within the dust storm, was flex his right arm cautiously. Sakura saw him moving his injured arm about, and immediately panicked.

"Don't move your arm like–!" she shouted, then faltered when she noticed the difference, "...that? But... how?"

Too curious of his own condition to take heed of her words, Syaoran instead squeezed at his arm hard to be sure of himself. Not that he needed to, as the first thing that anyone had noticed was that the massive swelling in his upper arm – originally caused by all the internal bleeding from his broken bone – had vanished. His arm was now straight and whole, just like anyone else's. He looked around at everyone, "It's healed... it's completely healed! But, that can't be right..."

Tomoyo's eyes immediately darted towards her bandage job on Sakura's leg, "Sakura... your leg, too!"

Sakura's head snapped up to face Tomoyo, then turned down sharply to spy upon her bloodied appendage. Right away, she found that the screaming, burning pain from her oversized gash had completely disappeared, and without her notice, no less. Hastily, she kneeled down onto her left knee to tear away the bandages covering her right leg's wound, only to find clean, unmarked skin sitting beneath the cloth. There were no blood stains to be found anywhere on her calf, nor any scarring that should have resulted from such a severe cut. She, like Syaoran, had been completely healed. All that now remained of her injuries were the crimson-soaked strips of her and Tomoyo's clothing that lay scattered across the ground around her.

She continuously felt about where the wound had originally existed, petting and examining the skin of her leg in disbelief, "This is impossible!"

"It _is_ possible, if the will of the planet decrees it so."

They all spun about on Eriol's words, seeking an answer that he knew they would want, and that they knew he would give. He smiled knowingly and continued, "Normally, the capabilities of magic are limited to what its physical elements can do within the natural world. This much you should already be aware of. These limitations are decided by a universal law that has been in place since before time itself began, and this law is then enforced by the will of our world so as not to upset the balance of the life and nature that exists upon her. The laws of nature are both balanced against, and tied together with, the laws of magic. The two are irrevocably interrelated.

"In essence, it is nature's law that decides what magic can and cannot do. In nature, there is no miracle medicine or scientific process that can mend a broken bone overnight. Such things take weeks, or even months. It is then also true that magic cannot heal a serious injury at the snap of a finger, though there _do_ exist magical abilities that can assist and accelerate the healing process for minor 'cuts-and-scrapes' injuries. There is certainly no type of magic, though, that can cause instantaneous restoration such as we have just witnessed."

"How do you explain this, then?" Syaoran asked forcefully, stretching his perfectly conditioned right arm straight out to his side, to emphasize his point.

Eriol slipped his glasses back up his nose before he continued further, "The words that we just heard – or, more correctly, the understanding of a singular thought – were the thoughts and images of the Great Mother herself. The very planet itself rose up its power to address us. It is rare, to the point of being unheard of, that she is required to rise from her slumber to partake in the affairs upon her surface, but it seems that such is the case here. We were all given the understanding of its actions, that 'unnatural pain shall not be tolerated', and that 'unnatural power must not be allowed'. For whatever these things means, it must have seen fit to bend the laws of nature for this one, fleeting moment. It restored you two to your former selves, using the spirit's remaining power as an augment for its effects. I admit, though, that I am worried as to the greater meaning behind it all, if the very planet itself felt the need to commit to this intervention."

Syaoran tested his arm for a third time, still unable to work his way into believing what he was seeing. Sakura was likewise hopping back and forth between her two legs, trying to see if she was just imagining things, despite everything that Eriol had just said to them. Eriol finished his explanation of their miracle by making a point upon it, "What we have seen here today is something that most generations of sorcerers and magicians only hear about as stories of myth and lore passed down from tens of generations beforehand. Not even Clow Reed had ever seen anything of this like. We would all do well to remember the power that we have witnessed here today."

They all nodded in agreement, and just in time for another flash of light to occupy their attention. Before them, where the dwarf-spirit had once stood, was now a newly-erected doorway of light. Through it, they could see the familiar colors of the museum hallway that they had left behind so very many hours ago, and as one they felt an overwhelming relief at the thought of finally being home free.

Eriol huffed a small laugh at it, "It seems that our time here is finally done."

"Let's get out of here, then," Syaoran added quickly, wasting no time in taking to the doorway. He was quickly followed by everyone else as they all passed through that door, with neither doubt nor hesitation to slow them. As the last to depart, Sakura turned back momentarily and looked up into the darkness above, trying to see past the infinitely tall stonework columns that were stretching off into nothingness. She wanted to remember her encounters here, and everything that she had witnessed, just as Eriol had said they should. The good, and the bad... all of it.

With a satisfied smile, she turned to the doorway, and at last, stepped back into her own world.


	55. A Matter of Time

_6-8c: A Matter of Time_

"Let's get out of here, then," Syaoran added quickly, wasting no time in taking to the doorway. He was quickly followed by everyone else as they all passed through that door, with neither doubt nor hesitation to slow them. As the last to depart, Sakura turned back momentarily and looked up into the darkness above, trying to see past the infinitely tall stonework columns that were stretching off into nothingness. She wanted to remember her encounters here, and everything that she had witnessed, just as Eriol had said they should. The good, and the bad... all of it.

With a satisfied smile, she turned to the doorway, and at last, stepped back into her own world.

The first thing she heard, upon stepping back through the rock-formed archway, was a soft droning accompanied by the familiar, flourishing melodies of a piper. It was the "bard's lament", she realized quickly, as it had been termed by the earth spirit. This was the song that the living earth itself had sung out to them. The very same song that had quieted the Minotaur, and helped to bring the dwarf-spirit to its senses. What was strange about it, though, was that whoever was playing it was already halfway through the song. It was as if the performing musicians had spontaneously decided to start the song back up from the middle of the composition. Her thoughts were as one with the others, in wanting to find out why, and immediately they took off back down the hall and towards the museum's foyer.

As rushed as they were to seek out the source of the music, they failed to take heed of the rock archway disappearing from view, only to be replaced by an advertising poster for the Worldly Warriors exhibit.

Rounding the corner, what they found was nothing short of impossible to them. Beyond the large, windowed doors of the museum's main entrance, it was still as bright as day, though it was beginning to rain heavily. Within the foyer itself, they saw three familiar bodies among the thin gathering of people: one that that was drawing softly at the strings of a cello, and a second that was fluttering his fingers across the fluted part of the strangely shaped Uilleann bagpipes. The third, and more recognizable of the three, was playing upon a black electronic keyboard, sending soft undertone melodies through the air in accompaniment to the piper and cellist.

They approached slowly, encompassed within the reverence of the song that had led them to safety, and for a second time, allowed its majesty to flow through them right to the very end. They only let themselves fully approach the trio of musician once the song had come to its quiet conclusion.

Reios turned about upon hearing footsteps approaching from behind, and looked at the four in mild confusion as they moved themselves cautiously closer. He questioned them, "What's wrong? Shouldn't you be with the others by now?"

Sakura hesitated for a moment, then just went out and asked her own question, "But... what are you still doing here?"

"That's what I just asked..." he returned, concern thickly lining his words as he started to take up a sharp notice of their collective condition, "What's going on? Why do you all look like you've been on a survival trip through the Amazon?"

Looking back towards herself and her three companions, Sakura realized that his words were completely true. Despite the efforts that the Great Mother had taken to revitalize them, they still looked completely and positively wasted. The ordeals of the caverns and labyrinth still weighed heavily upon their minds, besides, with experiences that would likely continue to haunt them for a very long time to come. Their clothes were also well-traveled, covered in both dust and grime from their battle with the Minotaur. Sakura and Tomoyo, in particular, were both showing signs of tear more than wear, due to all the makeshift bandages that Tomoyo had been forced to make. The blood-stains dotting their clothes from Sakura's former leg wound were also all too obvious.

Ignoring Reios's concern for the moment, Syaoran glanced at his watch to verify that he was right, and indeed he was. It was almost three o'clock in the morning, by his reckoning, and to hell with how bright it still was outside. With this in mind, he then asked, "Shouldn't the museum be closed by now?"

Reios raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him, then checked against his own watch.

"Closed? It's not even a quarter to five yet," he noted. He raised his wrist up to prove it to them, which showed the time as five-thirteen P.M., a good nine hours behind Syaoran's watch.

First checking to make sure that his partners in music weren't paying attention, Reios glared demandingly at them and lowered his voice so as not to be overheard, "Alright, what the _hell_ is going on?"

"So then, it _was_ an alternate reality," Eriol muttered to mostly himself, though he explained his meaning anyway, "That would explain the differences in time between you two. Alternate worlds can often have differing flows of time, with one minute in our world ranging in difference between a split second and all the way up to several hours in other worlds. It would seem that the underground world we were sent to was of the latter case, since only a few minutes have passed by here in the real world. It must have had a severely increased rate of time flow."

"Whoa whoa whoa, you need to make some sense, here," Reios countered, with an utterly perplexed look on his face "Alternate realities? Time flows? I think you'd better start at the beginning..."

So in as short a time as they could manage (at least, once Reios had pulled them away from the reach of any prying ears), they explained about the false path that they had taken from the nearby hallway, the rock-formed archway that had lead them into the trap of riddles set out by the dwarf-like earth spirit. They briefed him on those series of riddles and puzzles, rooms one after another that had eventually lead towards the magic-draining labyrinth and their near-fatal encounter with the unstoppable Minotaur creature that had laid therein. Further explanations of their escape and surprisingly fortunate encounter with the spirit itself, while heartening to Reios, were practically ignored when weighted against the rest of their story.

Indeed, he was most distressed that they had been forced through such an ordeal without him, "Is everyone all right!? Damn it, I am _so_ sorry for not being there to help."

"Don't worry about it, we're all fine now," Sakura assured him, though her forced half-smile failed miserably at hiding away her nerve-wracked disposition. Breaking away uneasily from Reios's ensuing inquisitive gaze, she hugged at herself loosely and admitted the truth, "Though, I admit, I'm still quite shaken up about it."

Eriol nodded to agree, "I think it would be best if we all called it a day, here, and took to an early night's rest. Where are the others located at? We should inform them that we are taking our leave."

"And for that matter, what time is it, exactly?" Syaoran asked, glancing about the foyer for a clock that he could reference from, though he eventually just gave up and checked with Reios's watch instead.

Once his watch had been returned, Reios answered the initial question, "As for the others, I think they're still over at the nature exhibit. They're probably waiting for– check that, here comes Yamazaki now."

They turned alongside Reios's words and gaze to find Takashi heading their way, and he was eyeballing their condition just as curiously as Reios had been. None of them were looking forward to having to lie to him in order to worm their way out of this one, and this was while forgetting the fact that they had previously told him (and everyone else) enough cover stories about their magic-based exploits to make a trilogy of novels. Yet they each knew that there was no way they would be able to last the rest of the day. Sakura was most notably so, with her having suffered the brunt of the labyrinth's dangers.

Besides, Takashi was due up to be lied back to, after all the fibs he himself had conjured up over the years. Who better to perform it, then, other than his partner in crime? So after conjuring up enough fibs and cover stories to suit Takashi's wild imagination, Eriol stepped into his path and gladly took the lead in excusing themselves for the day.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	56. Coming of the Storm

_6-9: Coming of the Storm_

The feel of the evening air around her was gloomier than a grumpy old man that was having to deal with rambunctious children, and the skies above closely matched such a mood by presenting a flood of dark and ominous storm clouds. It would easily rain this night, she knew, as it had for most of the previous week. As such, she had brought her umbrella along with her, just in case. It was something that she had come to expect of this place, and even admire, though she still much more preferred the look of clear skies and cheery sunlight. Still, expecting sunlight and cloudless days for more than a few hours at a stretch was a bit too much to be asking of merry old England at this time of year. Then again, asking for any _single_ type of weather pattern for more than a few hours at a stretch was asking for too much...

The conditions of the back alley in which she walked, decrepit as they were, did much to add to the gloomy atmosphere that was looming above the city of London. She had often wondered why most mysterious people always chose run-down alleyways and half-condemned shacks as a base of operations, considering that most of the mysterious people that she knew could have just waved a hand to make their homes invisible to the naked eye. She was fortunate enough to have had directions available to her, at that, for she was already lost within the alleyway's singular path. If she had been asked, right then and there, to find her way back out without aid, it was very likely that she would have ended up on the far side of London instead.

In retrospect, having to find an invisible location would have been extremely unproductive.

Yet fortune continued to smile through the clouds, if not any sunlight, as she finally happened across the door that she had been directed to arrive at. She could not help but smile sadly at it as she assessed its condition. Partially rotted away to the point of crumbling apart, it was being held together only by a half-hearted fix of boards nailed all across its surface. What little paint that remained on it – a dark blue if she had to guess – was peeling off and flaking away into the wind of the coming storm. At least it was sheltered from above by a wide yet thin roof of plywood, held up at its corners by a pair of wooden lengths that were nailed into the walls. With the increasing winds, though, it would do little to save anyone from the promise of the rain that loomed in the sky above.

Brushing some strands of her bright-red hair away from her face, she soon rapped against the ratty old door a couple of times with the back of her hand, and began listening carefully for the sounds of anyone approaching from the far side. She was, therefore, slightly surprised that she was unable to hear anything, even as she was more easily able to _sense _the approaching of an attendant. Just mere moments after noticing the presence of this attendant, a hidden eye-slot in the door pulled open to reveal a pair of bright blue eyes set into the wrinkled face of what was likely an old man.

The old man's voice revealed as much about his age and gender, "Who comes?"

"One who seeks an audience," was her reply.

"You do not come shrouded," the old man noted testily, pausing for a moment to examine what few features that he could see through the eye-slot, "What purpose would you have here?"

She replied again, "That will be for the master's knowledge, before anyone else."

At the same time, she slipped a thin and folded length of paper out from her pocket, and passed it carefully through the eye-slot so as not to startle the old man. Even so, she could tell that this old man was far more observant than he was being given credit for, and in more ways than one. There was an odd kind of aura hanging about the old man's features, almost as if he was trying to hide something, which suggested that this simple attendant had far more power than was being revealed to her. With what little there was to see of his face through the slot, though, it was quite difficult for her to make out anything more than that.

The old attendant took and eyed the delivered item carefully before turning back to address her again, "Return tomorrow, at this time, as you have now. I will see to it that he meets you."

Before any more could be exchanged, the eye-slot closed up on her, once more leaving her alone within the darkened and decrepit alley. With little else to be done other than wait for the morrow, she unfolded and raised her umbrella above her, and proceeded her way back up the alley just as the first droplets of rain began to fall.

At the end of the alley, hidden away as they were in both darkness and what was now a thick curtain of pouring rain, she met up with her two traveling companions. She stepped close enough to them to reveal through the rain and darkness a sleek-coated black panther that was adorned with silver chest plate. Its deep, baritone voice soon greeted her quietly, and inquired as to her findings. Then, after being given a summarized explanation of what she had encountered, it asked of her, "So we are to return tomorrow, then?"

She nodded silently to it, which prompted a question from its partner.

"But can we really wait that long? Eriol said that it's almost time, right?" asked its female voice, matched to a long-haired redhead that wore a silken dress of dark reds and bright pinks.

She climbed atop the panther's back, and allowed it to sprout a pair of majestic butterfly wings before leaning forward to secure a hand hold on the top ends of its chest plate. She then replied to her crimson-set friend, "They still have time. Even if we are late with our plans, I am sure that they will hold out just fine."

"But why this sudden goose chase? And why London?" the panther asked of its rider. It tested its wings slightly as it began levitating itself up and over the buildings around it, before continuing its inquiry, "Would it not have been safer – and faster – to summon the one we seek to some other safe house back in Japan?"

She looked over to the crimson beauty that was now levitating beside her and her panther mount, making sure that she had the attention of both of her companions before she answered those questions, "It is all because Eriol has sensed that there is something greater to be accomplished from all of this. However, he also believes that to reveal ourselves within reach of his opponents would endanger us, and he was adamant that we were to stay out of harm's way. He feels that we will need the support of _all_ magic-users, if we are to keep the darkness at bay long enough for our chosen to directly combat the core of all this trouble. He has thus ordered us to search in the place that holds one of the two highest concentrations of sorcerers in the world: here, in London, with the other being Hong Kong.

"The library of magical tomes and historical references that he keeps at his manor in this city – which are all copies of the books from Clow Reed's old, Japan-based manor – were of a great help, those few weeks ago, in leading us towards the 'prophecy of prevention'. They were of a similarly great help today in allowing me to locate the person that we seek. Unfortunately, that is all of the information that we have been able to gleam from two lifetimes of knowledge, and that has Eriol greatly troubled. We still have not deciphered the full meaning behind that prophecy, either, and Eriol believes that finding this meaning will be the deciding factor for the things that are surely soon to come.

"That we have managed to get this far, though, is only due to Eriol's close observations of the course of events in Japan. He can only send me a little bit of information with each day, yet as his understanding grows, so too does our need for haste grow. It is unfortunate that he has been unable to fully unravel the prophetical mystery that stands before us, due to his disabled memory and inhibited foresight, but we _do_ at least know that action must be taken – soon. From the phone call that I got from him not even a few hours ago, he told me that the earth element was sealed away just today. This surely means that there is likely very little left standing between our dear friends and what he suspects will be their final confrontation. To add to our worries, Eriol also mentioned that Kerberos has sensed something lurking behind the powers of the elemental spirits. He fears that this mystery presence is the emergent dark force that has been manipulating these spirits from behind the scenes, and I am inclined to believe him.

"Regardless of the situation, though, we need to continue on with our preparations, and that means gaining an audience with the mystery person that lives in that alley now below us. We must also make haste in uncovering the meanings behind the prophecy, or else be ready to deal with what will probably end up being a worst-case scenario. What is to be released? To whom is it that the words refer to? So many questions over a simple poem, and yet we still only have theory and assumption with which to answer them all."

With his silk-clad companion having cleared herself of the buildings below, her butterfly wings stretched wide with the anticipation of flight, the black panther widened the birth of his own wings and allowed the water-drenched winds to carry him off towards home. He soon after noticed his companion flying closer to him than was normal, and that she was closely eying their mistress that was riding upon his back. He subsequently eased his movements to allow them to converse.

"Alright, then answer me this," the winged female requested, and then held up a fistful of her waist-length, crimson-red hair, "With all of the rain and humidity we've been getting this year, just _how _do you manage to keep your hair so straight and clean like that!? Mine's a total mess in less than a few minutes!"

She was happy that she would be allowed to pass the time in more agreeable conversation, and replied to her winged friend eagerly, "Well, there was this wonderful little hair salon that I found while I was out shopping, this one time. Somewhere along the Oxford Street thoroughfare, I think it was..."

The two red-head females took off into their own little world of hair styling and cosmetic appeal, leaving the winged panther to reminisce on one of his more favorable reads as he did his utmost to block out the inane conversation behind him.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*= =*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

_End, Chapter 6_

_

* * *

  
_

"_Light in the darkness, the preventers of destruction_

_To release one begins the release of them all_

_You cannot defend her, kneel down and surrender_

_Your end is at hand"_


	57. The Nightmare, Revised VI

**Chapter 7 – To Fight a Fire  


* * *

**

_7-1: The Nightmare, Revised VI_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream. The same dream that she had had before, except that at the same time, it was no longer the same dream as before. Back then, her dreams had been of images and silence, and of meanings that had wholly eluded her, and yet this night was lacking in such familiarities. Back then, either Clow Reed's desires had brought her here, or she had come of her own free will under varying purposes, and yet neither of these two scenarios remained true to her this night. The dream was beginning to change, that much was certain. Or rather, it had _been _changing for some time now. It was no longer under her control. It was no longer existent solely for her benefit, if it ever had been.

No. What she now found around her was, somehow, and to be sure, nothing short of terrifying.

All around her was a never-ending darkness, the same as before, with the light of her own dreams having been completely consumed by whatever it was that had summoned her here. But the similarities ended there, for the differences and changes were all too noticeable for her now: there were no floating crystalline orbs to represent the elemental spirits she and her friends had confronted; no illusionary books or representative images popping out of anywhere; and most importantly, no little bird that she was constantly unable to save. All that remained to her awareness was the deep, swirling mass of darkness that was spinning calmly before her. And even that seemed to be different from before.

Having spotted and recognized the vortex, she finally understood what it was that was so disturbing about her surroundings. There was an undeniable power within that swirling darkness – vacant, yet supreme. And it was calling to her. But it was not something that she could audibly hear, for within this nightmare, there were no sounds. Rather, just like how the Great Mother itself had spoken to her, these words were weaved into her mind as a singular, understood thought: it wanted her. It wanted her power. It wanted her to join together with it. It tempted her constantly with promises of eternal bliss and pleasure, bribed her incessantly with an end to the fear and constant conflict in her life. And all she had to do, in order to achieve this ultimate dream of release, was lend her powers towards the creation of a new life. It scared her to think that a darkness such as this offered these things.

The scariest part of all, however, was that she was actually considering it.

What she wouldn't give to be freed from what was now a constant fear of having to face adversity. How she longed to be freed from these inescapable nightmares; to no longer have to suffer every night just because she held vast powers within herself. It truly was a grand and ultimate dream, to be released from the fate that had been chosen for her, _forced_ upon her, so that she might life a normal life with her friends and family. She had not asked for this life of conflict and mystery, so why should _she _have to be the one to suffer? And all she had to do was let herself be taken. Devote her life to the eternal darkness, and it would all be over. There was naught to do but let the void take her away and _smack_!

She recoiled hard as something flew directly into the right side of her head, stabbing into her skull with a fierce and vicious sharpness. She felt about at the imaginary, dream-like wound to her head, and searched her hand over intently for signs of blood. Relief flooded through her when she was able to accept that she had not been severely wounded (regardless of the fact that this was a dream), but this feeling was swept clean away upon her next realization. That realization being, that she knew all too well of what it was that had caused her that pain, just now. It was yet another part of her dream.

Her little dream-friend bird had just proverbially (and literally) slapped some sense into her.

She had a responsibility to herself, it was telling her, and to her friends both new and old. She had a responsibility to her magic, and to the children that she held so dear. She could not forsake her life for the lure of release that this darkness was presenting to her. She didn't need to – she didn't _want _to – because, in the end, it would all mean that she had given up. It would mean that she had lacked the strength to fight. And above all else, it would mean that she had never truly cared, and _that_, in itself, was unacceptable. That last part was something that she could not forgive herself for almost allowing, because she knew that she could not afford to give up.

She would _never_ give up.

Forcing herself to turn away, she broke off from the link that had been forged between her mind and the will of the darkness. Left with no other choice, and with no other way of escape, she just ran. Lacking in both direction and caution, she took flight. For as fast as her feet would carry her, she spirited herself away from all of the promises that the darkness was placing into her mind. Her feet heeded nothing but the desire for escape.

She found it, within the light of her own dreams...

…

…

…

…

…

...never stopping in her dead run through the twists and turns of the endless labyrinth, even as that light was shadowed over by yet other fears that were constantly haunting both her conscious and subconscious minds. A never-ending race against the blue-furred monster that was far more powerful than she herself could ever dream of being. A creature with such ability and strength, powers matched only by its ill intent, that she feared to attempt even those actions which would surely put her at the forefront of this race. Her fear was that, in such an attempt, she would risk the patience of this thing that endlessly sought after her. And in the end, she knew that it would find her, regardless.

Finding herself trapped in a corner that had moments before been a wide open cavern, she turned about to face that fear. And under the gaze of those beady, blood-red eyes that were swiftly closing in upon her, she broke.

Her nightmarish world of sleep and dreams broke alongside the night-shattering scream that followed suit, leaving her gasping and panting heavily now that her lungs were so desperate for air. The residual adrenaline rush of the chase threw her into a cold sweat, and allowed a paralyzing fear to overtake her even as her father and guardian rushed their way into her room.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	58. Storm Chasers

_7-2: Storm Chasers_

She returned, as she had promised she would, to the decaying and unkempt back alley door that she had visited the previous evening. The rains that had been tormenting the city from the previous night were now washing down all around her with a fury unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was an omen; she could easily tell. The spirit of the world itself was crying, even though it alone was the only one that could possibly know of what must be coming. Even though it alone was the only one that could possibly know of what needed to be done. She just wished that it could somehow tell her of such things.

She folded her umbrella up once she was beneath the plywood alcove, thankful that the winds from the previous night had finally died down. She wouldn't have to worry about getting her best formal wear dress wet, this way. She had gone through much trouble to request an audience without her being required to shroud her identity, as was the custom among magic users in the western world, and she wanted to look as presentable as possible.

Raising a fist, she rapped upon the rotted door but once, placing her hand back onto the pink-toned purse at her side as the door creaked open for her under its own power. Peeking a careful eye through the opening, there were no attendants to open it for her that she could see, nor any automated mechanisms that she could spy. Instead, she sensed a powerful and overbearing presence at work. One that could have been felt from clear across the city, had it allowed that. Shaking off a sudden hesitation, she stepped through the door quietly and, not wanting to be rude, closed it herself.

The conditions of the building's interior were a far and distant cry of its exterior, for what was outwardly deplorable and decaying was warmly decorated and beautifully dressed on its inside. The walls were lined with a beautiful, red-washed wallpaper with a gold-leaf pattern set all about it, accented by both a streak of golden yellow running horizontally along the middle of those walls, and with a blazing fire at the far end of the room to add a charming, vibrant glow to it all. Various paintings and potted plants took their places all along the walls and corners, respectively, filling what spots the ornately carved, velvet-cushioned oak chairs did not. It was a reception room, by any other name, and a rather grandiose one at that. She couldn't help but feel, however, that it had been created specifically for this one particular moment in her life.

Another door, this one on the far side of the room and situated near the welcoming fire, slid open with a soft creak. The powers within this place were beckoning her to whomever awaited her on the far side. She took to its invitation, without hesitation this time, and closed the door gently behind her as she passed through. And thus, she found herself standing in an oil-lamp-lit, scaled-down version of the waiting room that she had just occupied, except that set before her was an elegant oak wood desk. It also came complete with the person she had come to meet. Even though this one was covered completely by a black-material hooded cloak, the customary attire of the western magic world that she had purposefully avoided wearing, she could tell just by the feel of this one's power that this was also the person that she had been searching for throughout the last few days.

A leather-gloved hand beckoned her closer, and offered her one of the chairs that rested on her side of the desk. She noted that while she was given a comfortable, cushioned chair that was much like the ones in the reception area, her host sat within a stately, throne-like chair, with the back rising taller than its occupant. The wood was worked in with a thin golden hue, giving off a kind of sparkling effect against the flickering of the oil lamps. At the shoulders of the throne, in representation of her host's focus of power, were set two symmetrically opposed balls of flame. They were colored in such a way that they looked almost like actual fire, despite only being carved imitations.

Her host began speaking to her, only once she was settled and completely attentive, "So, you finally approach me. You who had once drawn from my opposing element, I find it odd that you now come to one of the flame."

His voice was deep and foreboding, and yet warm and vibrant at the same time. It was like staring into a pit of revived embers with one's ears. It was also the same voice that had attended to her for that short time from the previous day, she realized, although it now lacked the "old man" effect from before.

She replied to him, "That is no more. Now I walk the path of the Moon and the Dark, and gladly so."

"And yet a part of you did not wish to leave the old ways behind," he retorted, dismissing her words as mere folly with a wave of his gloved hand, "If I recall the reports correctly, in fact, there was even a cause for concern in relation to this and a blatantly unwarranted attack against 'his' chosen heir. It took the local sorcerer clan almost an entire week to quell all of the rumors that were flying about Hong Kong's downtown core: cloudless rainstorms causing street signs to collapse; the upper floors of buildings being flooded, even though they were still under construction; waterspouts snaking their way across the sky! It was quite the mess, from what I've been told."

She maintained an expressionless face, against his verbal onslaught, "That part of me sought to find his previous self by any means necessary. I realized the folly of my old wishes only after Clow Reed's gift had reincarnated me, and I was pained that I could do nothing to prevent or stop it. Ever was he the selfish one, to force a memory-recall spell upon me for his own ends. Though, I do thank him for his effort, all the same, for I would not have been allowed to experience his love without it."

The cloaked man's gaze was piercing into her mind, despite that she could not even see it, "This does not set aside the fact that your former magicks still rampaged against his heir."

"The separation of mind from soul is a considerably difficult magic, especially when performed under emotional distress, and to say nothing of performing it upon oneself. To expect it to have been completed without incident is foolish."

Her host leaned back into his throne slowly, all the while demonstrating a thick amount of arrogance in his posture, "And yet his heir has attained such feats with more ease than would a child riding a bicycle."

"The strength of the Stars is far greater than any power ever conceived here upon our Earth. The night skies chose their mistress well," she told him, forcing the cloaked man to concede to her point. He then brought the topic to her true reason for having visited him.

"So then, my dear – _former – _water sorceress," he began, still unable to hide his disdain for his opposing element, "what brings you to visit a frail old man, such as myself?"

He was enjoying the chance to antagonize her, _just_ because of what she _used_ to be. It was her turn to adopt a piercing gaze, "Your shrouds hide the perception that I know lies within you about as well as they do your perfect physical condition. You should be very well aware of my purpose here."

He nodded slowly, "Indeed. The elemental deities of that same sorcerer clan from Hong Kong were freed of their imprisonment, some time ago. Most, though, have been saved from their darkness, by this point. I believe that only one opponent remains left – that of my flame."

"She will succeed," she noted pointedly, "She will believe in the strength of her Stars, in the support of her friends, and in the courage that such things give her."

"If her success is not in doubt, and you truly believe that she can bring a calming to the final chaos that is my darkened element, then what has you so inclined to seek my aid?"

"Because Eriol believes that there is yet more to come."

The man's voice took on a slightly annoying tone of amusement, "Ah, so then... Sir Clow's present-day personage has seen a coming future that the rest of the world could not predict? How predictable."

She concealed what little annoyance was showing on her face by wiping away a stray strand of her red-tinted hair, and continued on, "Clow Reed himself saw to it that Eriol would be granted only those memories that were no longer useful in aiding his situation, though I dare to question his purposes for it. The powers of these deity elements have also added to his limitations, by dampening his ability to see into the future. Because of this, he is now no more or less aware than you or I of things that have yet to come – he has become a normal, everyday sorcerer. And still, despite all of this, Eriol has managed to pierce through some of the clouding. He has anticipated a danger that is more powerful than anything that has been faced yet. A power that may very well endanger the planet itself."

"When you refer to the planet..." her host drawled out slowly, "...do you mean those lives and animals dwelling upon her? Or perhaps her natural soul itself?"

"Both."

Her host raised a gloved hand to his chin, the cloth and fingers disappearing into the magicked darkness inside the cowl as he scratched as his chin in thought. The hand fell away after a moment, and he leveled his hidden gaze onto his visitor once more.

"What leads you two to believe this?"

She focused to maintain her own gaze upon him, needing no line of sight to know where his eyes laid. He was playing games with her now. That hidden gaze upon her made her absolutely certain of it, though she had no tangible way of really proving it. Rather, she had known that he would toy with her right from the start, since such was the nature of the relationship between opposing elements. She was also extremely certain that he was hiding something important from her, though she did not have the time to figure out what.

"A balance within the elements is faltering," she answered, "There is an interference among them that surely even Clow had seen, but of course Eriol cannot confirm this as truth. The four primal elements of the world: fire, wind, water, and earth, and their sibling elements of wood, metal, and thunder – they all continue to hold each other in balance, and thus all is as all should be. However, Eriol believes there to be another force that is placing these balanced powers into jeopardy; a hidden element that is disrupting the balance. It has yet to reveal itself or its true nature, though its minions have made mention of its presence to him and his companions on several occasions."

"And yet your beloved Eriol continues to keep his companions misinformed?"

She shook her head, "No. As I told you, his memories have been selectively sealed away, and his foresight forcibly inhibited. What little he is able to truthfully tell them, that is not pure conjecture or theory, is not under his control. He has told them only what he believes to be true, but nothing else has been confirmed beyond the utterances of half-demented spiritual beings."

The man leaned back in his chair, his gloved hands folded together atop of his desk, "So then... if it is believed that there is to be an eighth, unknown threat that lies beyond the defeat of the seven deity spirits, what is it that you propose should happen so that the world will be able to deal with this threat?"

She held back her words for a fleeting moment, so as to give them a proper meaning, "A mass gathering."

Her host, cloaked within both cloth and magic to hide what she suspected was a true awareness of the situation, still appeared to be visibly stunned by her words. She hid her smile well behind an emotionless mask, pleased that she had at last had the desired effect upon him. He sat there for a time, unable to think of the words to bring to her. Finally, he just stood from his throne-like chair, and turned away from her to face a painting upon the wall: an image of green fields and flowers of lilies stretching into the horizon of a summer-blue sky beyond. He looked into that painting for a long while, soaking in the proposition that she had brought to him. Though he did not not turn to face her again, he eventually spoke once more.

"A mass gathering..." he uttered quietly, "Such a feat was once requested of me by Clow Reed, when such threats as those we face now were existent in his time. It is told, within the records kept by our old mage's guild, that he had traveled to many locations around our great world. He even went to such points of land that modern society has, even now, yet to breach. His message of the coming of darkness through the destruction of the primary elements had raised many an eyebrow among those educated in the ways of magic. At such a time, however, they were all short-sighted, and refused to heed his words. They wholly trusted within the planet's power, and trusted in the balance of the elements to keep things in check. It is believed that such inaction was the catalyst behind his reasoning to seal away these darkened elementals, instead of having dealt with them as his heir has so far done. Though, I should think that you are already well aware of all of that."

She paid little mind to his history lesson, fully aware of it as he had said she was, and moved on to her side of the story, "It is Eriol's understanding that Clow Reed used this opportunity to prepare those who would be better able to call the world for the final coming of this hidden enemy. He used both his own power, and also Eriol's magic, to place 'coincidences' around his three heirs, in order to ready them for the confrontations that now face them."

Her host merely crossed his arms at her, "And now we are faced with those confrontations once again. While the world may actually heed such warnings, this time, and subsequently move to act, I fear that to gather as much power as you would likely suggest we need, in as little time as you would likely suggest is left... such things may be next to impossible."

She voiced her request without pause, "We will be gathered tomorrow night at the place where they shall seal away your element."

The man sighed to himself, and retook heavily to his seat behind the desk, shaking his head all the while. His inability to believe that such things could happen, and needed to happen, gave her no end of irritation. Her face grew unnaturally hard in response, as her eyes glared fiercely into his cowl.

"What you deem impossible will then have to be made possible. There is no choice."

He scratched at his chin again, taking a moment for himself to decide his next selection of words, "There are only five people left to this world that remain even remotely close to Clow Reed's level of magical strength: his reincarnation, the one to wield the descendant Power of the Dark; he with no family, a self-proclaimed knight that wields the Power of the Light; the sole heir to Clow Reed's true power, the one in possession of the ancient Power of the Stars. They are already committed to their task, and cannot be relied upon for our needs.

"There is yourself, a reborn sorceress that now serves the Power of the Moon, and the soulmate in both past and present to the chosen of the Dark. Then there is myself, one that has been forged from the Power of the Flame, which is the older and more powerful of the four terrestrial elements. A power that will soon be tested, mind you."

He held up three fingers of his gloved right hand to emphasize his point, "It would take any three of us to come to a level comparable with Clow Reed."

Where he before had been haughty and confident, her host was now showing signs of doubt. She smiled inwardly at her success, even as he continued to speak, "Then, we must consider that there is only yourself and myself to organize all that must be done in what little time is left to me. What can two individuals hope to accomplish, in such a limited amount of time, that Clow Reed himself was never able to attain through years of planning and unparalleled foresight?"

She took this moment to stand up from her chair, and removed the purse that was still hanging from her shoulder to place it onto the desk. Slipping open the zipper, she opened the bag just enough so that the lamp light would not reveal the contents, yet would allow for magic-enhanced vision to see through to its insides more than clearly enough.

"We will accomplish it because Clow Reed, through Eriol, has provided – or rather, I should say 'once again' provided – the means with which to summon those with the will to fight."

Beneath the darkened cowl, she could easily tell that the man's eyes had gone wide with astonishment. Perhaps even wide with fear. His stuttering cries easily confirmed this for her, "Impossible! These are the...! But they...!"

His stuttering over the object within the purse was enough to satisfy her completely, though more for a sense of rivalry than for her original purpose. Content that her mission had been fulfilled, she turned for the door to excuse herself. She purposefully left her purse behind, in the process.

Before she passed through the door leading out from her host's office, she offered a final suggestion, "Use it as your clarion call, to bring together those that we will soon require. Such is one of the two purposes that it has been resurrected for. It will return to me under its own power, once your needs to use it have been completed."

At the risk of being out of line, and also to satisfy her suspicions, she lastly added, "And one more thing: don't hold back, for their sake."

She was gone before he could speak further, leaving behind her purse and its contents. Within it, he could feel the incredibly strong powers of the Moon radiating out in waves. It was an object recreated by Clow Reed's present-day form, no doubt, except that the object's trace powers – the origin of the magic weaves that had initially designed such an object – were from a far, far older source of magic. A source of magic that would have been familiar to any rank or grade of sorcerer that was in the know: Clow Reed himself. This, alone, proved the authenticity of the contents within the purse.

This was an object personally constructed by Clow Reed. It was the original, to be sure, and not some facsimile copy created by his reincarnation. It had been directly handled by the hands of the most powerful human being to ever exist, which made it all the more awe-inspiring. Its original purpose had been to guarantee his heir's rite of succession. Would its power be enough to guarantee his heir's survival, though?

He shifted about in his chair, allowing the light of the lamps to reflect ever so slightly off of the gold-skinned object that laid within the purse. What he managed to see for that one, singular moment gave him even further pause. Elegantly engraved upon what little he had momentarily seen upon the golden surface of the obscured object, was the Japanese kanji symbol in representation of the word "Moon." And even though he was already fully aware as to the object's identity, seeing such a thing made him smile ever so slightly with confidence.

Because now, he knew that they actually stood a chance.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	59. In a Hurry

_7-3a: In a Hurry_

"Good morning!" Sakura called, surprising her father slightly when she darted into the kitchen brightly and loudly. He noted that she was fully dressed for a school day, on top of it.

"Good morning, Sakura... you're up pretty early, for a Sunday," he noted, glancing at the clock to verify the time. Indeed, it was only thirty minutes past seven. He squinted at that clock, thinking to himself.

Sakura whispered a quick greeting to her mother's photograph before addressing her father further, "The Cheerleader and Choir clubs are taking Sunday practice this week, so I'm going to meet up with Tomoyo at the park before we go to the school," she informed him, then paused when she tried to recall something, "Didn't I write it on the whiteboard?"

Fujitaka looked back from the clock with a soft grin and shook his head, "You didn't, actually, but that's okay. I'm sure you've had more... important things... on your mind. Are you sure that your bad dream didn't keep you up? You look tired, still."

She froze slightly as he posed the question to her, gauging his face as his gentle smile turned into a mask of parental concern. Hesitation was foremost in her mind, although it was not because of any unwillingness to talk about it. Rather, it was more because that she was not sure of how she wanted to answer. Confiding in him would help to lift the burden, certainly. After the past evening's events at the museum, and with the nightmares and realizations that had followed, she was very well tempted to tell him of her new-found fears in full detail. To be able to tell _anyone_, for that matter, and just get it all off of her chest, would have been a great relief to her. Yet her father was likely already more than worried enough about her constantly getting into fights with paranormal entities and spirits. To add a simple _dream_ to those worries, of all things...

She replied back to him with a forced smile, "I'll be fine, really! I'm probably just a bit unnerved from it all, still."

"Well, if you say so. At any rate, let's have something to eat, hmm? I made enough breakfast for us both," he lifted a pair of plates over the kitchen's counter as proof, and proceeded towards the table.

She took her seat at the table beside her father, and chanced to look up at the clock on the wall while he was setting the plates down: thirty-two past seven. She snapped upright as she remembered that she was supposed to be meeting up with Tomoyo at the park on the hour. The next several minutes following this realization was all a flurry of food and utensils, as she sought to devour her meal in record time. Ignoring a growing stomach ache, she thanked her father for the unexpected breakfast, threw her roller-blades on as best as she could, and was out the door with eleven minutes to spare.

The best that she could estimate was that she was only a couple of minutes late, by the time she had arrived at the park, although she had to ignore the small cramp that was developing in her stomach, in order to reach such a conclusion. She hoped that Tomoyo had not been waiting too long, but she also knew that there was no way Tomoyo would be late to a meeting. If anything, Tomoyo would have made certain to be early for their meeting, which made it all the worse for Sakura's train of thought. And of course, as she rolled her way into the Penguin Park area, she found her best friend sitting patiently on one of the swings, passing away the time by reading a small pocket book while she was waiting.

"Tomoyo!" Sakura shouted across the playground, before stepping her roller-blades carefully across the cement and sand, "I'm sorry I'm late!"

Tomoyo stood to greet Sakura, while the girl took a seat for herself on one of the miniature penguin figures to remove her roller-blades. Tomoyo merely smiled gently in reply, not really caring if Sakura was just a few or even several minutes late. She remained equally as patient, while Sakura placed her walking shoes on, and together they left the playground to head towards the high school.

As an opening for some conversation, Tomoyo made to inquire about the unfortunate results of their most recent adventure, "How is Arrow faring, after last night's... events?"

With her magic having become the topic of discussion, Sakura took to idly toying with her magic key through her uniform's shirt. She smiled slightly, and replied, "I think she'll be okay now. Eriol and Kero both said that all she would need is a day or two of rest inside of the Sakura Book, since the book was designed to help regenerate the cards when they're not depending on me for their magic. When I asked the Mirror to check up on her before breakfast this morning, while I was packing up the other cards into my purse, she said that Arrow was doing quite well. In fact, Mirror even said that Arrow was _insisting_ that she was all better, and that she was ready to go if I needed her again. But Eriol stressed that Arrow needed to stay in the book and recover for at least a full day, so I told her that I'd carry the book around with me today, just so that she could stay with me."

Tomoyo nodded happily, "It's just like you, to be so kind! I'm glad to hear that she'll be okay."

But then her smile disappeared like a puff of vapor, as she took to staring at Sakura intently. It was an act that had Sakura side-glancing at her best friend multiple times, as she tried her best to determine the source of all this sudden and undue attention. A look of concern eventually overcame Tomoyo's facial features, which served to emphasize her inquiry, "What about you, though? You don't look like you got much sleep last night."

Sakura had to do a double take at the same question that her father had asked just minutes ago. Tomoyo hadn't even been there! How could she possibly know that Sakura had had a rough night? For the second time that morning, Sakura put on a forced smile.

"It's nothing, honestly! I just had a... a bad dream... last night," she muttered, trailing off near the end as her mind began to unwillingly recall up the unsettling images from both of the two dreams that she had experienced. She even reached up to rub the spot where the little bird had flown, beak first, into her head, even though she knew that the stabbing wound it had caused was not real. Then again, she just as much preferred not to have to remember those moments at all, and quite literally attempted to shake them out of her head.

"Is it something that you want to talk about?" Tomoyo asked quietly.

Sakura began to wonder if perhaps she really did look out of sorts, now that she had been asked that specific question for a second time today, but that wasn't what got Sakura to thinking. The question that Tomoyo had just posed had immediately struck at a point deep within her heart, and unlike from when her father had asked it, that heart was now telling her that she needed to speak out about this. She needed to talk to her best and closest friend about this. Sure, she knew that it did not truly matter to whom it was that she eventually chose to speak to, but her heart just did not seem to want to confide her problems to anyone else. Not even her own father, whom was easily as aware of her predicament as Tomoyo, could fulfill the role of confidant. It just did not seem right.

But Tomoyo... _she_ had been by Sakura's side since the very, very start, and those extra few years of moral and intellectual support granted the dark-haired girl the psychological edge that everyone else pretty much lacked. Not even Syaoran, with all of his loving care and devotion for his beloved Sakura, would ever be able to come anywhere close to what Tomoyo had provided in the past, and that was saying quite a bit, right there. Tomoyo would be able to understand the best of how she really felt, and Sakura knew that there could be no substitute for it. It was all Sakura could do just to keep from breaking down, pulling Tomoyo aside, and pouring out her heart's mix of fear and sadness right then and there – her fears of not being strong enough to fight, and her sadness at almost having given up. Now that the contents of her dreams had all shot to the forefront of her mind, unexpected and unbidden, it was almost too much.

_Almost_ too much. So instead of opening up, she decided on the next best thing, "You know what? I... I think I do need to talk about it. I want to. I can't... I can't deal with this by myself anymore. But I don't want to say anything yet. At least... not right now. I want this to be a good day... you know? And talking about this is just going to make us both feel morbid. Can I talk to you... later tonight, maybe...?"

Outwardly ecstatic that her dear friend would confide in her, but inwardly horrified at how shaky and timid Sakura's voice had just sounded, Tomoyo was otherwise overjoyed that she could help Sakura in this way. She took one of Sakura's hands into both of hers, stopping the two of them from their walk.

"Of course you can!" Tomoyo answered insistently, "If you need me, I'll always be there for you. Just like you've always been there for me."

The heartwarming smile coming back from those emerald eyes told Tomoyo all she needed to know for a reply. Maintaining their hold on each other's hands, and enjoying the warmth of each other's friendship and company, they turned back and continued on with their walk to the school.

Looking to find a more suitable topic for Sakura's preferred 'good day', Tomoyo recalled up something that she had hard that morning in the news, "You know, I was thinking that, since it's just club practice today, maybe we could all go to the Tsukimine Shrine afterwards? The city is holding a festival to celebrate its centennial anniversary, and most of the town is probably going to be there. I already took the liberty of inviting Syaoran, Eriol, and Reios, but I couldn't get Chiharu or any of the others to go, sadly. At any rate, I think it would be a really good getaway from all the fighting you've been doing recently. Maybe it will even help you relax?"

"Hey, yeah! A festival sounds great!" Sakura exclaimed cheerfully. Somehow, the thought of festivities always managed to brighten her day, which was exactly what Tomoyo had been aiming for, "My dad is going to be out tonight for a teacher's meeting, so I don't have to worry about having dinner ready, and Kero can fend for himself now, easily enough."

Tomoyo jumped up onto cloud nine with a sudden idea, "Oh, maybe we can wear some battle costumes to the festival! After all, special clothing for special occasions! I finally managed to finish up the last of our newest costumes, after getting home last night, so it would be the perfect opportunity to try them out. I only hope that the one I made for myself is at _least_ something near to as ultra-cute as yours will make you look!"

Sakura looked hesitantly at her friend, and for more reasons than for the one that she spoke aloud, "You... want us to wear battle costumes... in public?"

"Of course!" was Tomoyo's ecstatic reply, "It's not like you're going to be fighting anything dangerous. It's just a festival."

All Sakura could do was emit a soft, nervous chuckle, as more and more ideas for the evening started popping into Tomoyo's head. Still, a festival did sound nice, and it would be a good chance to take insome sorely needed relaxation and enjoyment. It would be a welcome change of pace to all of the recent problems that they had been dealing with, as Tomoyo had said.

The big plus to it all, however, was that she would finally get to see Tomoyo in one of those special costumes. Like Reios had said before, it would complete the look of the group.

"Well, then," Tomoyo continued, "we should meet up at my house, straight after club practice. I'm having Syaoran meet us there anyway, which will be perfect, since we can all change into our costumes before we set out. We'll need to be at the shrine for six o'clock, since I think that's when the ceremony starts."

Sakura nodded her agreement, "Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun! I can already–."

Her words and her feet both came to a dead stop just outside the walkway of cherry trees, the ones that ran along the main public trail that lead to the two schools. The sudden change in Sakura's demeanor immediately threw Tomoyo into a mode of caution. Her knack for sensing Sakura's mood was starting to hone her sixth sense for danger. Regardless, it didn't stop her from trying to fish her video camera out of her purse.

"What is it?" Tomoyo asked, hoping to prompt a response that she could record.

Sakura started glancing about the area cautiously, "The air... it's thick. It's too hot. It feels like... a presence, almost."

Tomoyo took notice to the changes around them almost immediately after, and noted that it was indeed a fair bit hotter than it was before. Unnaturally so. The air seemed thicker, too. It was extremely humid, now, almost like they had stepped into a sauna. She couldn't sense whatever presence it was that Sakura was feeling, however, but she simply took her friend's words for truth, on that account.

Looking about the area with her camera, Tomoyo eventually spotted something streaming above the horizon of the nearby buildings. She zoomed in her camera's lens for a closer look, and managed to gain Sakura's attention in the process of doing so. Scanning the skies together, they were then witnesses to the beginnings of a thin plume of black smoke rising up from the distance. Judging by how distant the stream of dark clouds looked, it was most probably coming from one of the schools.

Putting trails of smoke together with a possible presence made the situation more than obvious, and sent the two girls into a near-dead run towards the school grounds.


	60. Fire Alarm

_7-3b: Fire Alarm_

Looking about the area with her camera, Tomoyo eventually spotted something streaming above the horizon of the nearby buildings. She zoomed in her camera's lens for a closer look, and managed to gain Sakura's attention in the process of doing so. Scanning the skies together, they were then witnesses to the beginnings of a thin plume of black smoke rising up from the distance. Judging by how distant the stream of dark clouds looked, it was most probably coming from one of the schools.

Putting trails of smoke together with a possible presence made the situation more than obvious, and sent the two girls into a near-dead run towards the school grounds.

The air temperature around them continued to steadily increase, as they made their way ever closer to the source of the smoke. Even though it had yet to measure up to some of their hotter summers in experience, having to endure all of the heat that was pounding against them, as they made their mad rush to its source, was still quite exhausting. There was also the natural warmth of the morning sun to contend with, as well. The two girls were both sweating profusely by the time they made it to the street that lead to the two schools, and were barely able to keep their breath over the rising humidity.

Their first clear view of the billowing pillar of black told them that the smoke was coming from the high school. That made their job easier, since, despite it being so early, the main gates would already be open. As they closed the distance, they saw that the smoke was originating from a window up on the third floor, and took note of the specific room. They wasted no time in crossing the courtyard, barging in through the main doors, and speeding towards the nearest stairwell that they could find.

At the very moment that they crested the stairs leading to the third floor, they were assaulted by a thick layer of black, acrid smoke. They were quickly forced back towards lower ground and a more breathable atmosphere, coughing and hacking slightly from what little they had inhaled. Taking the risk of public detection, Sakura released her wand and tossed a card in front of her to beckon the Windy into play, in turn forming a thick shield of wind around Tomoyo and herself in order to protect them from the poisonous clouds. With their defenses in place, the two girls attempted to crest the third floor once again to find that the smoke was quite easily being held at bay by their new shield. Their safety ensured, Sakura took Tomoyo's hand to be certain that she remained inside the Windy's range, and then started off in the direction of the window that they had sighted from the street.

The going was slow, regardless that they fully knew of where they were headed. Even with their shield of wind to protect them, they were still blinded by the continuously thickening clouds of smoke that were constantly trying to gain access to all of the clean air within Windy's defenses. Not even the bright morning sunlight from all of the nearby windows was able to fully pierce through the darkness that surrounded them. They forged ahead, despite this, and eventually found themselves standing before the destination classroom. Its frosted windows were brightly aglow with the red of dancing flames.

"Tomoyo, step back!" Sakura ordered, her friend obeying the command as soon as it was given. Mentally intensifying the strength of their shield in preparation of things to come, Sakura carefully stepped her way closer to the door. Wrapping her one hand into the fabric of her uniform's skirt, so as to avoid burning herself against the door's metal handle, she counted slowly up to three to steel herself, before pulling that door open with a harsh jerk.

She jumped back instinctively as the flames from within the room lashed out at her, eating away greedily at the new source of oxygen that had been made available to it. As she had hoped, her enhanced air shield had ended up taking the brunt of the eruption, forcing them to suffer only a sudden and short blast of intolerable heat. All the while, the smoke around them continued to thicken, and it was now almost to the point of blocking out even the lights of the blazing fires in front of them.

"Watery!" Sakura cried loudly, striking her wand at a second card and sending its power directly into the core of the inferno. The water avatar formed up into her mermaid-like form, as commanded, and set herself to battle the innumerable amount of crimson flames that were dancing and prancing their way across all of the chairs and desks.

Watery took up a position within the very center of the room, and began concentrating her power around herself, forming her elemental energies into a thick bubble of water. When she could hold no more of her element to herself, Watery shot her arms out hard with a sharp hiss, and sent a massive rush of water splashing about the whole of the room much like a tidal wave against the shore of a beach. The end result was that she had effectively managed to douse the majority of the flames.

Sakura breathed out a heavy sigh of relief at her card's success, in that most of the danger had been easily put out. It would now be only a minor clean-up effort, in order to put out those few smaller fires that had survived the attack. She moved closer to the door to issue a new command to Watery, but was forced to fight her way back out with Tomoyo's help, when a giant rush of air nearly sucked her right into the room. In the time of two heartbeats, that sizable quantity of oxygen was pulled away from the area around them, and was supplied directly into the remaining flames within the classroom. Another heartbeat of time saw those flames put back to their original, raging condition. It was as if Watery's attack had never occurred.

"It's no good. The fire's not going out," Sakura noted bleakly, "I don't have enough strength to douse this size of a fire, not while I'm using two high-level cards at once."

"But a normal fire wouldn't have re-ignited itself so easily, or so suddenly," Tomoyo observed, stepping back carefully as a thin stream of flame made its way right up to the edge of the doorway.

Sakura stepped back in tandem, and thought it out, "So it has to be the work of the elemental spirit that we haven't fought yet! But then, how do I deal with it? I can't put any more power into the Watery without endangering us..."

Again, Watery attempted to engage the fire, by sending a blanket of water into the flames around herself, but only to have the previous result be repeated. Even though she had practiced to the point of now being capable of wielding three high-level cards at once, the drain on Sakura's spirit, from the effort of having to maintain the magic of just two of them, was still quite obvious. Sakura finally withdrew Watery to conserve her power for Windy's shield, and instead attempted to think of what she could do next.

"It's no use trying to call up more water-type cards. With Windy active, I just don't have enough energy to spare to put the effort into clearing out the fire. But I can't attack the fire directly if we retreat to somewhere safer. What do I do?"

"We should just get out of here, for now," Tomoyo suggested, after realizing that Sakura was unable to come up with anything right away. Tomoyo knew that they would be in trouble if they stayed there any longer than they needed to, Windy-shield or not.

Insecure with simply leaving the flames to their wiles, especially those having been created by one of the spirits, Sakura hesitated greatly. She very much wanted to send Watery back into the fray, even though she knew that it would have very little to no effect, just like before. But she had more than just her own safety to worry about, at the moment, and she knew that she could not afford to take any risks. With a heavy reluctance, she agreed to Tomoyo's proposal, and turned to retreat.

Without warning, another flare-up from within the classroom overtook them. While they were saved from any detrimental effects of the flames themselves, thanks to Windy's protective magicks, the effort of guarding against the rush of the fires somehow managed to exhaust Windy's power. The card was dispelled into its sealed form before Sakura could even think to try and empower it further. In under a second, the two girls were overcome by a searing heat, and were left to choke on the plumes of black smoke that had rushed into the pocket of clean air that their shield had held to them only moments previous. With the unexpected change in their surroundings, the two immediately dropped to the floor in search of a more breathable atmosphere.

The besieging toxic fumes began to quickly eat away at their eyesight, with the feeling of sharp needles intruding incessantly upon their tightly sealed eyelids. Their attempts to find cleaner air also failed to produce any results, and once they could hold their breaths no longer, it left them gasping deeply for the acidic vapors that surrounded them. These intolerable pains, combined with the frightening loss of vision and the terrifying sense of impending danger, made the two girls lose all sense of direction, position, and, more importantly, each other.

Uncontrollable coughing, from somewhere off to her right, made Sakura mildly aware of Tomoyo's position. She swung her arm about blindly in that direction, feeling and grasping about until she gained contact with skin that was not her own. Searching about for a hand hold, she grabbed tightly onto Tomoyo's arm, and attempted to lead her friend away from the fires with an encouraging tug. She became momentarily frightened when her tugs upon Tomoyo's arm produced no form of response, but she soon felt a hand from that arm clamp down weakly onto her wrist. That was enough for Sakura to push herself up onto her hands and knees, force her eyes open to sight her path, and start crawling her way out of this nightmare with friend in tow.

The smoke around them was piercing Sakura's lungs painfully, constantly forcing her to cough it out only to inhale even more of it when she sought her next breath. Her eyes were watering and stinging something fierce, with the resulting tears distorting what precious little she could see ahead of her. The heat that surrounded her, which was being mercilessly aided by the raging flames that were quickly encroaching on her position from behind, battered against her body brutally. All of it was challenging her ability to remain conscious. Weak, confused, and scared, she only managed to crawl forward a few meaningless paces, before collapsing right back onto the ground in a daze. Tomoyo quickly mirrored her friend, for similar reasons. It was all the black-haired girl could do just to make those few more inches to Sakura's side. From there, the two girls simply cowered together – unable to breathe, unable to see, and unable to act.

Even through the panic that had already completely overwhelmed her, Sakura tried to pull enough of her mind back together to withdraw one more card from her side. She sought desperately for a last ditch effort to free the both of them from the suffocation-bound fate that now awaited them, only to succumb to a new fit of coughing and hacking that would just not stop. Her card- and wand-wielding hand dropped in front of her instinctively, to pointlessly shield her eyes and mouth against the smoke, while the hand that was holding fast to Tomoyo's arm tightened its grip all the more. Tomoyo's own feeble grip upon Sakura's wrist tightened just ever-so-slightly, in response.

Thinking to steel herself against the pain for one last try, she forced herself to inhale deeply, and cocked back her arm to throw her card out and invoke it. A piercing stab from within her chest crippled that attempt before it could even begin, as the acrid blackness that she had purposefully taken in took its toll upon her body. Her throwing arm dropped to the ground midway from completing its task, as a result, and sent both her wand and her savior Shield card sliding pitifully across the floor and out of her immediate reach. Sakura made to push herself forward and retrieve them, trying to spy their location even against her blurred and charred vision, only to find herself collapsing back onto the ground before she had even tried.

And that was it. She had nothing left.


	61. Rescue Brigade

_7-3c: Rescue Brigade_

Thinking to steel herself against the pain for one last try, she forced herself to inhale deeply, and cocked back her arm to throw her card out and invoke it. A piercing stab from within her chest crippled that attempt before it could even begin, as the acrid blackness that she had purposefully taken in took its toll upon her body. Her throwing arm dropped to the ground midway from completing its task, as a result, and sent both her wand and her savior Shield card sliding pitifully across the floor and out of her immediate reach. Sakura made to push herself forward and retrieve them, trying to spy their location even against her blurred and charred vision, only to find herself collapsing back onto the ground before she had even tried.

And that was it. She had nothing left...

...

...

_..._

"...damn, that's a lot of smoke!"

_...?_

"Should we try to put the fire out?"

_...a voice...?_

"Wait! Listen... do you hear that coughing...?"

_...another...? Is someone there...? Please..._

"Is someone in there!? Hey!"

_...please..._

"...dear God, it's Sakura and Tomoyo! Clear away the smoke, _NOW_!!"

Sakura clearly heard the two voices, even against the roaring of the raging flames behind her, and even against the black and acrid smoke that had penetrated all the way into her very thoughts themselves. Against her addled and dazed mind, she could not tell if she had recognized them or not, but she also did not care. They seemed to know that she and Tomoyo were nearby, and that was all that was needed. They could help her and Tomoyo escape. They had to. But try as she might, her lungs were just too full with useless, scalding smoke to be able to shout out to them. Each agonizing breath and subsequent fit of coughs burned at her throat fiercely, immobilizing her vocal cords from calling out the words that her mind was so fervently trying to convey. She despaired deeply at being unable to reply to her would-be rescuers, an emotion that only worsened as her consciousness began to slip away from her once more.

"Sweep away all of the darkness before me! Windy!"

What she heard as an incantation was immediately followed by a strong gust of wind blowing over her, casting away all of the smoke and pain that had encompassed Tomoyo and herself just moments before. Struggling with their devastated lungs, they both inhaled large gasps of clean, sweet air, only to cough it back out as the passing of that air burned sharply at their now-raw throats.

Still blinded by tears and smoke, Sakura failed to recognize the hands that laid themselves hastily upon her shoulders, "Are you all right!?"

She was able to recognize the voice, however. It was the same person that had sounded the Windy incantation: Eriol. Coughing up another proverbial lung, as she tried to push herself up onto her knees, she shook her head in a desperate reply. No, she was most certainly _not _all right. She wanted out, and she wanted Tomoyo out. She wanted them both safe and away from the flames and smoke. The school didn't matter to her anymore. None of it mattered anymore. The whole school could burn down now, for all she cared. She just wanted to get Tomoyo and herself away. Away from all the pain and suffering. Away to safety. The two of them, away...

"This is bad!" came Eriol's voice again, "We need to get them out of here!"

"That does it," the second voice sounded off. Reios, she thought, judging by the unusual language that she had heard.

"Strike into hell with the fury of the seas! Watery! Rain!" shouted that same voice, harsh in tone and utterly infuriated. His words were followed by a sense of exploding power, as the two mentioned cards burst away from their caster and into what she hoped was the raging fire within the classroom.

"Are you all right?" Sakura heard Eriol ask again, though this time the question was hopefully being directed to Tomoyo. Sakura almost panicked when she didn't hear a reply, but she trusted that Eriol would take care of it.

She blinked a few more times, and moved a hand to scrape away the tears and residual smoke that were all still thickly obscuring her vision. Her eyes continued to burn something fierce, even after a few more seconds of tears and blinking, but she was now, at least, able to see again. Pushing herself back fully onto her knees, the first thing she did with her half-restored eyesight was look straight to Tomoyo's last known position. A heartening relief washed through her as she spotted her blurry best friend mere inches away, holding herself up in a half-prone position with Eriol's help. Tomoyo was struggling hard enough just to catch her own breath, and was attempting to sit completely upright, on top of it, with coughing and hacking aplenty to rival Sakura's own constant noise-making. But ultimately, she had been left relatively uninjured, and that was all that mattered.

Sakura twisted about to look behind her, and found an extremely agitated, sword-wielding Reios staring angrily into the flames that had, by now, fully gutted the entirety of the classroom. He watched those fires intently, as his two water cards fought side by side with an equal rage to douse the flames that were actually trying to fight back, this time. It was a hellish dance of weaving and dodging for the two cards, but they both put everything they had into fighting against a bonfire that had literally flared to life.

It didn't take long for Eriol to join Reios's side, sending his own Watery and Rain cards into the fray once Sakura and Tomoyo had been assured as safe. With the help of the four cards of differing owners, whereas before they had been controlled by just a single person, it was now of enough combined power to be effective against the magic-induced flames. Those raging flames battled hard to ensure their own survival, swirling about the room and licking into the air to try and catch any one of the four water cards off guard, but they were no match for the rage of the two boys that they were pitted against. Slowly, but surely, the flames began to submit to their opposing element.

Once the flames had been fully snuffed out, the two boys turned their attention to Sakura and Tomoyo once again. Eriol thus asked, for a third time, "Are you two okay?"

With her hands protectively cupped about what must have been an agonizingly painful throat, Tomoyo merely nodded her head. As she was still preferring to keep her mouth and eyes shut against the leftover stinging from the smoke and heat, verbal and visual contact were both completely out of the question. Sakura, through her continued coughing and hacking, also could not answer verbally, at first. Try as she did to respond normally, she just barely managed to literally squeak out a quiet "yes", after quite a few tries.

"Let's get them out to cleaner air," Reios suggested, kneeling to assist Tomoyo as he spoke. Eriol didn't even need to be told, and was already grabbing gently at Sakura's arm. They both did their best to hold the two girls upright, as the four of them made their way back to the stairwell, but it was still a major struggle to keep things moving. Weakened and dazed as they were, the trip down to the main floor of the school was also quite the hell for the two girls, but they all eventually managed to make their way outside. The cleaner air was already having an effect on their strength, as well, for they were able to walk under their own power soon after exiting the school, instead of requiring the constant support of a shoulder to lean on.

Eriol lead the way to a nearby stone bench, and ordered Sakura and Tomoyo to take a seat while Reios returned into the school to find a source of water. After Reios had returned and handed the two girls a set of water-filled paper cups, Eriol inquired to them, "What happened up there?"

Sakura made an effort to answer, even though she was still trying to work past her strained voice, when a stream of light shot away from Reios's sword-arm and straight up into the morning sky. Several more followed along as he fired continuously with the aid of the Force card that was being held in his left hand. They all looked upwards to find that he was attempting to shoot down a small, pixie-like light source that was circling and spiraling endlessly in the air above them, nearby the window where she and Tomoyo had originally spotted the smoke plume.

A few more shots finally managed to scare it away, causing Reios to lower his sword and put away his card. After a moment more of staring into the sky above, Reios looked at Sakura and asked, "I'm going to guess that it had something to do with that?"

Sakura nodded, and coughed forcefully one more time to clear her throat. Finally finding her voice to speak again, now that she had been able to wash away all the smoke and fire, her words still managed to come out more raspy than she had desired, "It was probably the fire spirit, the one that we haven't fought against yet. When we got to the school, there was already this huge fire burning in the classroom. I used Windy to create a shield to protect us, and then we went in for a closer look. I tried to put it out once we found it, but it was too strong for me on my own! That's when we decided to leave, but then the fire attacked us, and that's when Windy gave out on me, and then I couldn't breathe, and everything was dark, and-and–!"

"Easy, easy. It's all right, now," Eriol soothed, attempting to calm Sakura before she could get any more excited, "You said that Windy's power gave out on you?"

She nodded quietly, as she was still trying her best to keep her lungs breathing; still trying her hardest to fight back the dual-purposed tears of healing and fear. In an effort to calm herself, she took up another swig of the water that Reios had provided her. Eventually, though, she felt compelled to answer, "I was using it as a shield to protect against all of the smoke, but the flames just ate away at it as if it were normal air!"

Eriol hummed quietly to himself, crossing his arms as he processed through this troubling information, "Even as powerful as the spirits might now be, it should be impossible for anything to just _feed_ off of a card's energy like that. Most especially a high-level one, like Windy. Something is not right, here."

Reios leaned himself up against a nearby tree, "Well, isn't a card just a form of magic? So what about that creature from the labyrinth, the one that you said was absorbing your magic? Isn't that the same thing?"

Eriol shook his head, "Magic, and more especially the 'spiritual essence' types upon which we humans draw, is just another form of raw energy. Much like electricity or sunlight, it can be utilized in several differing forms. The cards, however, are preset and complex spell forms, even if they are, themselves, individual entities. Their powers can only be utilized in certain and specific ways, and to use them in any other method would be inexplicably difficult at best. The Windy, for example, was designed to be primarily a binding spell, although it can also act as an attacking spell when required. In this case, Sakura probably used it to bind breathable atmosphere around herself and Tomoyo, while they were within the school. However, for it to be used as a source of fuel for the fires that it was protecting against... it should have been impossible."

Reios merely shot a raised eyebrow at his fellow sorcerer, "But then, back when we first met, I remember you saying that each of the spirits could potentially have the magical strength to match that of Clow Reed. If that's the case, wouldn't they have the power to manipulate even the magic of the cards? Even more so, if they've been growing more powerful over these past two weeks."

Eriol didn't want to believe it as possible, but it was true that he had said such words before. As such, he was forced to at least take Reios's theory into consideration. The world around them went momentarily quiet, as a result, while Eriol withdrew into himself to think on all of the implications of this revelation.

"So what should we do, now?" Tomoyo eventually asked, though her voice was just as raspy as Sakura's had been. They were all, none the less, relieved that she was able to talk again.

"For starters, _you_ are going home!" Reios told her pointedly, spinning about on her and giving her a severe look that was all but ordering her to listen to him, "After what you've been through, and with the condition of your voice, there is _no way_ that you'll be able to perform at your best during today's practice. There's no way that I'm going to_ let_ you, for that matter. If anything, with your throat as it is, trying to sing might only make things worse."

Tomoyo coughed forcefully, despite the desire to hide her suffering from his demands, and then shook her head purposefully.

"No. Even if I can't participate, I still want to be there, if only to just sit and watch," she told him, although his stern glare refused to lift itself from her, "Besides, I might still be able to recover enough to be able to sing later on, even if just a little bit."

That next sentence only made his gaze grow even more intensive, prompting her to follow up yet again.

"I'll be fine, really! I promise, I'll take it easy today!" she insisted, finally causing Reios to break into a slight smile as he shook his head at her in profound disbelief. She could be extremely stubborn when she wanted to be. It was a trait that he admired, under certain conditions. This was not one of those conditions, sadly, but whatever. He left the issue alone, as such.

"That still leaves us with what to do," Sakura repeated for Tomoyo.

"For now," Eriol said, "there isn't really anything that we _can_ do. The only thing left to us is to go about the day normally, and hope that the spirit doesn't choose to attack again while we are separated. As it is, I am relieved that it chose to strike at a time when we would be gathering together, though I am forced to wonder at why it did so."

Eriol then eyed each of them intently, "However, the most important thing we can do is to keep our own morale up. We can be all together and completely armed, but if we aren't mentally prepared for it, it will easily gain victory over us. Don't let today's near-disaster demoralize you."

Reios nodded, "Sound advice, as usual."

Far above them, the bells of the elementary school's clock tower chimed out its morning call. It was the melodic song to signal the start of classes for the day. Despite that it was a Sunday, it still meant that they were soon to gather for their weekend club practice. And Eriol was right, in that there was nothing more they could do about the spirit, or about the attack that they had just barely survived. There would also be an inevitable media circus, once the torched classroom was discovered, but they would just have to avoid that bridge if they ever came to it. Thus convinced that they could do nothing else for themselves, they departed from the stone bench and made to return into the school.

"By the way," Reios began to inquire, "how are those costumes coming along?"

Tomoyo was forced to clear her throat again, in order to properly respond, but was happy to move into a topic that she could more easily appreciate. To that end, she replied cheerfully, "They're done, actually! I was working on a kind of regal-like, 'royalty-and-knights' theme, originally, so I think you'll like them! They only need a few more final touches, too, before we leave for the festival tonight, but I can just do that once everyone's wearing them."

Reios had to do a double take at that last part, "Wait-wait-wait... we're wearing them to the festival?"

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	62. Dressing for the Occasion

_7-4: Dressing for the Occasion_

The gates swung open easily enough, but they were still far too slow for Syaoran's liking. As soon as he was able to just barely squeeze through them, he was past the iron-wrought blockade and bursting through the manor gardens at a break-neck pace towards the front doors. Having expected such an entrance, and especially after having told him of the morning's events over the phone, Tomoyo was ready for him. She had had those doors open long before he had even arrived.

He shot clean through the front entrance without so much as even looking at her, and skidded to a stop just inside the main foyer as he remembered his manners. He turned back and approached Tomoyo, "Where's Sakura? Is she all right!? Are _you_ all right?"

"She's fine," Tomoyo replied calmly, making him realize just how loud and panicked he was being, "We both are, thank you. She's upstairs, right now, changing into her costume."

Syaoran nodded to her, and then bolted straight through the foyer and towards the stairs that lead to Tomoyo's room. Smiling to herself at Syaoran's dedication, she followed along at a more decent pace.

Halfway up the stairwell, he once again remembered his manners, and stopped his maddened rushing to allow Tomoyo to keep up. He even attempted to calm his nerves by engaging himself in a deep-breathing technique. It did not end up working very well, though, for he was back to his original pace before Tomoyo had even started up the first step. They must have made it to her room's door in what was most definitely a record time for Tomoyo, though Syaoran found himself impatiently waiting yet again for her to close the distance.

Unable to hold himself back any longer, Syaoran cracked open that door for himself, which prompted a soft grating noise from beyond as Reios started to pull his katana free from the scabbard that was held tightly to his left hand. When he realized who was at the door, however, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath for himself. Eventually, Reios returned the sword to where it belonged, and then willed the Little card's power into play to make it become it's miniature size again.

"Sorry," he muttered apologetically, "I didn't mean to, err... well... with this morning's events and all, I'm... a bit on edge, at the moment..."

"Don't worry about it. We all are," Syaoran muttered back, although he was fairly sure that 'a bit on edge' was mostly an understatement, "Where's Sakura?"

Reios hiked his thumb back behind him, pointing to the blue curtains that were covering the way to the theater room, as well as the rest of Tomoyo's bedroom.

"She's upstairs, changing into her outfit. She should be almost done, I think," he answered, and then turned to Tomoyo, "While I'm at it, Eriol said he was going to take a walk around the estate gardens. He should be back rather shortly, as well."

The two boys both took a seat on the sofa that was placed along the windowed wall of the room, and accepted some small cups of heated tea from Tomoyo before she sat herself down in her favorite one-seater. A few clatterings of cups followed suit, but the room remained totally coated in silence, otherwise. It was mostly due to Syaoran plainly not being in the mood for a conversation, but it suited Tomoyo just fine. She wanted to be attentively ready for those quiet footsteps that would mark when Sakura would be exiting from behind those curtains.

Her left hand dropped down to the floor beside her chair, when she finally heard those footsteps coming down the stairs from her bedroom. And by the time that Sakura had actually popped her head through the curtains, and literally at that, Tomoyo's video camera was already pointed and recording every single bit of it. Sakura knew that she would not be able to hide away forever, although that thought did not stop her from trying to pull back in behind the curtains anyway. So even though she was blushing a lot more than she thought she ever had before (being video-recorded was normally bad enough, but she also had to appear before a full-blown audience this time, too), she stepped away from the curtains and into the camera's full view to reveal Tomoyo's artwork.

The entire design, which was an elegant, light-pink, knee-high dress, was practically flowing along with her every movement, despite that it was tied down at the waist by a gold-speckled white, bow-tied ribbon belt. The two colors helped to blend the dress together with her ivory white, elbow-length gauntlets and her equally colored, knee-length stockings that were fitted over with glittering silver leather loafers. Accenting the whites were yet more lengths of ribbon, though these were of a light silver in color, and were more string-like in size. Their lengths weaved back and forth into the hems of the gauntlets and stockings, creating a loose and wavy, almost frivolous pattern as they went. And around her neck, the hem of which was sporting that same, frivolous weave, she wore the golden, diamond-set necklace that she had received from Syaoran, with its star-patterned design covering away what the medium-cut bodice of the dress was not.

On her back, woven right into the seams of the dress's neckline, were three feather-light fabric streamers that stretched along her backside and down to as low as her shins. The two streamers on the sides were of a light pink to match her dress, and were set into thin, acute-angled triangular points at their ends. The middle one was, conversely, of the more silvery colors from her hem weaves and shoes, with its tail end cut into a notably wider, obtuse-angled triangle. Then, with each one being displayed separately off of the tips of each triangle point, there hung gold-worked ornaments of the Moon, Stars, and Sun, respectively. And lastly, adding even more color to the mix of elegance, the purple-flower hairpin that she had been given by Rika for her sixteenth birthday was clipped neatly to the left side of her head.

Out of all the details that were available, Syaoran took a direct notice of the necklace that he had given her, and could not help but feel a sense of pride in knowing that she was wearing it specifically for him, as an acceptance of the promise that he had made for her. This, combined with the overall wondrousness of just seeing her being safe and sound, was giving her the air of princess-like regality that Tomoyo had been aiming for. Syaoran found that he couldn't stop smiling at her, as a result of it all.

But in the end, she was safe, she was uninjured, and there was absolutely nothing else in the world that could possibly have mattered to him. The cuteness overkill was just a bonus.

"You are looking more wonderful as I have ever seen," Eriol informed her, having walked into the room unnoticed just after Sakura's own arrival. His comment to Sakura not only set her off to blushing even more than before, turning her practically beet red, but also received a rather flat side glance from Syaoran for ruining the mood. His darkened demeanor lasted only for a fraction of a second, though, for when his gaze returned to Sakura, so too did his high spirits.

His awe-inspired staring was easily noticed by her, too, though her facial colors were no longer able to match the level of embarrassment that she was feeling. She didn't like being the center of attention, and it was bad enough that Tomoyo had to constantly record her. But then, it would have been rude of her not to accept the clothes that Tomoyo had so graciously made for her, especially considering that Sakura now knew of how much that wearing these clothes meant to her best friend. So as much as she still wanted to dart away from view, she instead took the seat beside Syaoran where Reios had previously been, him having stood to go change for himself.

"My turn, I guess," he spoke, "Back in a few minutes."

"He's right, you know," Syaoran muttered, a short while after Reios had vanished behind the curtains, catching Sakura's attention, "Eriol, that is. You are beautiful like that."

His words caused her kindly yet energetic smile to grow back onto her face.

"Thank you!" she said gleefully, and before he even knew what was happening, Syaoran was on the recovery from a small kiss to the cheek. It was now his turn to flush a full red in embarrassment, with his hand covering the point where her lips had just caressed him.

Despite how off-balance Syaoran was acting, this was not the first kiss that he had ever gotten from her. Not even by a long shot. They had granted each other _that_ honor at the end of the New Years Day celebrations, four years ago (the same year that they had worked together to seal away the Nothing Card). His mother had allowed him to return to her for one last visit, and the moment had just seemed right. Yet with that diamond-set necklace constantly reminding him of his promises to her, and with that dress making her look like she was ready for some kind of grand ball, it all seemed to hold a higher sense of meaning for him, this time around. It almost made it feel like their first kiss, all over again.

Even though he ultimately had appreciated the gesture, he was still generally embarrassed by it. Embarrassed enough, at the least, that it was something that everyone else in the room was able to latch onto rather quickly. It was all Eriol and Tomoyo could do, after that, just to cover their amused chuckling. So while Syaoran couldn't exactly tell if they were actually laughing or not, he could still see the amusement sparkling about in their eyes.

"What's so funny?" he asked sharply to Tomoyo, merely because she was the closest of the two. She glanced at him, looked back to Eriol with that damned, amused expression of hers, and then started laughing uncontrollably. Even Eriol couldn't resist emitting a few audible huffs of laughter. Syaoran merely crossed his arms and stared away from the two, willfully refusing to enjoy the supposed joke as easily as them. With an amused grin also plastered onto Sakura's face, she tried to gently nudge him out of his sulking with her elbow, although it did not have any of her desired effects.

"What's with all the laughing? Now, what did I miss?" Reios asked, as he stepped out from behind the blue curtains looking every bit like a noble warrior that had just stepped out of an ancient, oriental mythology.

He wore a bright, emerald-colored silken shirt, with golden, vine-weaved embroidery lacing its way all along his upper arms and reaching in beneath the gold-lined, ivory-colored leather bracers that were covering the majority of his forearms. Covering away most of his torso, and in turn hiding away a decent portion of the emerald shirt, was an ivory-colored suit of hardened, stiff leather that was wrapped around to cover both his front and back sides. It was embroidered in the middle with an image of a blazing sun, and was lined along its edges by a stretch of gold-trimmed blue silk about a centimeter wide.

The tough yet decorative leather was held up on both his front and back sides by a white leather strap that was slung over his left shoulder, which was then latched into place by gold-plated, sun-shaped buckles. The right shoulder, meanwhile, once again sported a shoulder guard, much like his previous costume had, although this one was now matching the prevalent ivory and emerald motif.

The chest guard's lower half was held in place by a gold-lined, ivory-white leather waist guard that was set over a wider, decorative obi of an ocean blue. All of this, in turn, was held in place by a thin emerald over-belt that was lined along the edges with golden trim, and had golden stars set at measured intervals along its bright emerald interior. The belt of the buckle was, predictably, a gold-plated blazing sun.

Helping to complete his 'brightness', were his ivory-white, shin-high leather boots that were built with gold-gilded caps of protective leather stretching over his knees, and the pure white, loose-legged slacks that served to accentuate the golden vine weaves of those boots.

"Nothing!" Syaoran blurted out to Reios's question, before any of the others could comment as to what had just transpired. Reios raised an eyebrow at him, looked around at the still-amused faces of the other two who were seated down, and then at a grinning Eriol who was still by the door, before shrugging and dropping the issue.

"Right... anyway, this is a pretty remarkable fit, Tomoyo," he noted, spinning about in place to allow both his audience and himself a better view, "I can see what you meant by regal-like. I feel like I just walked out of one of those paintings that you recorded from the museum exhibit."

"You _look_ like you just did, too," Eriol remarked, before pushing himself off of the wall that he had been leaning on, in order to make his way over to the blue curtains, "and I have a feeling that I'm going to be the same way, in a few minutes."

Eriol disappeared behind the curtains before Reios could think to ask about what he had meant by that. He shrugged at his missed chance, and then deliberately began taking awkward movements forward as he attempted to stretch into the varying pieces of leather armor that Tomoyo had weaved into his costume. The arm bracers and boot-mounted knee pads were just a few of the nicer features, certainly, but he was not so keen on the wrap-around leather plate that was encircling his midsection. It was mostly because of how tight he had had to tie the obi in order to keep it all in place properly, but that was probably just his inexperience with wearing fancy clothes talking.

He made his way across the room, with those deliberately awkward steps, and eventually leaned up against a nearby dresser to await their next show model.

It wasn't long before Eriol made his own way back down, and his appearance swiftly revealed the answers to what he had spoken of earlier. The way that Eriol was garbed was an exact replica of Reios's outfit in both design and cut, barring that all of the colors were completely inverted. What had been an emerald shirt for Reios was, for Eriol, a dark blue that was almost bordering on black, with silver vine work instead of gold. His arms were also protected by black-stained leather bracers, and not ivory.

Where it had originally been a white leather chest guard, it was now of a glistening black, although it was lined with the same shade of dark-blue as before. While the golden outlining of a celestial representation had remained in the center of the chest guard, Eriol's was more obviously of a crescent moon. The leather waist guard, originally an ivory-white with a blue obi supporting it from beneath, was now of a dark cerulean blue that was set over an obi of a brilliant purple. The leggings and boots, meanwhile, were set as a meshing blend of more cerulean blue and gold-embroidered black, respectively. The only thing that had remained the same about this costume's coloring was the emerald-colored over-belt that was inset with golden stars and golden lining, although that was sporting a waxing crescent moon as its buckle.

"Good call," was all Reios could say.

Next was Syaoran's turn, although he left his princess's side with a certain amount of reluctance. Their momentary separation worked into his favor, however, for upon his return, he found her fussing profusely over how amazing he looked.

Not only had Tomoyo thrown out most of Syaoran's typical colors of green and white, but she had also considerably changed the designs from her last attempt. This time, he was wearing a simple, true-silver shirt, left loose around the waist to hide the simplistic leather belt that was keeping his dark gray slacks in place. These were set over a pair of soft-bodied leather boots of a slightly darker color. He found himself amazed at that particular attention to detail, as he preferred a softer form of footwear while working with his preferred martial arts style.

She had then completed the look on him, by having him wear a full-body length, high-collared long coat. It was made up of what was quite possibly the brightest color of white that any human could ever think to create, and it granted him a kind of shining aura when it was combined with the afternoon sunlight that was filtering into the room. What few swirls of silvered vine-work there were – with some along the upturned collar, and more scrawled along the coat's lapels and lower sides – did little to hamper the brightness, and if anything only helped to amplify it. He had also taken up a special notice of the leather-lined chape pouch and leather-formed loops that had been set along the backside of his coat. They were points that had been designed to allow for his sword's scabbard to rest snugly on his back. Along with the mostly hidden leather string ties that were set to the inside of his coat, designed to prevent his coat and scabbard from flailing about too much in his movements, they would allow him to keep his weapon reasonably secure without requiring the use of a tightly-tied obi.

At first glance, it was an overly simplistic outfit design, for once, and it was what Tomoyo called the "mysterious knight" design. At the least, it seemed to be far tamer than usual, when compared to most of Tomoyo's previous works. However, upon closer scrutiny, they found the symbol of the Chinese yin-yang emblem weaved into the front of his shirt, camouflaged into the silver because it held no color of its own, but was merely an outlining weave that could only be seen when the light was properly reflecting off of it. They also spied the similarly camouflaged designs of the Sun, Moon, and Stars on the lower backside of his coat, as he turned about for Tomoyo's inspection. Those symbols were respectively weaved into the left, right, and central areas of the tail of the coat, just below the chape pouch. The symbols were then repeated for a second time on his upper portion of his backside, in behind where his scabbard would later rest, but this time in their combination design that Tomoyo had originally created for his previous costume.

"Wow, you look cool in that one!" Sakura announced, "It makes you look stronger, almost. Like a modern knight!"

The high praise went straight to Syaoran's head, as he set himself into a cocky grin and defiant pose.

"And then, there was one," Reios said, apparently out of nowhere and for no particular reason. At least, until they found him to be staring meaningfully at Tomoyo, who well understood what his gaze meant. It was time for her costume to be displayed. With a simple nod to acknowledge her turn (although it was more of a nod to herself, to try and bestow a measure of self-confidence), she placed her camera onto the black table before her, and rose from her chair quietly. She swept confidently through the curtains, after making a direct line for them, but then halted her march halfway up the stairs to her room as a question forced its way into her mind.

Was she really going to go through with this?

Unbidden, those magical words that had been brought up as descriptions of herself rushed forth into her mind, reinforcing her will as Sakura's voice continually reminded her of how the brown-haired girl wanted Tomoyo to look. She then remembered the 'why' of her reasons for doing this, and her face took on a look of willful determination to match. She had eventually agreed to this, not only for the satisfaction of the group, but for her own satisfaction as well. She wanted to know, once and for all, as to whether or not her costumes and video recordings were worth all of the effort and trouble that she had put into them. She wanted to be _absolutely certain_ that her life-long devotion had not been without meaning.

It was for that final reason, above all else, that she ascended the rest of the steps ahead of her, and proceeded to change into her newest creation.

Her appearance back into the main room was slow, perhaps even paced, but it ended up having the effect that she had been hoping for. They all noticed immediately that, like Eriol and Reios, Tomoyo's dress was an almost direct inversion of Sakura's outfit. Save for a few slight changes in detail and design, Tomoyo had become a direct contrast to Sakura much like how darkness was a direct contrast to light.

The flowing, knee-high dress was of a severely dark blue, split apart at the waist by a thin, purple, bow-tied ribbon belt. The darkened blue was blended in by black, frill-hemmed silk hand gloves, and black, knee-length stockings that were set over with dark silver loafers, with the hems of both the gloves and the stockings being lined with a purple fabric that were just a shade darker than what she had used for her belt and loafers. An addition to Tomoyo's dress saw a thin, yet bright, purple lining along the hem of her skirt, although she had added it as a last-minute thought in order to weigh down the fabric, more-so than to add a flare of design. Completing the balanced look between Sakura and herself, she had chosen to wear over her neck a simplistic silver pendant, and it was kept into its place by a shimmering loop of solid silver. The pendant's oval, medallion-like body was inset with an eight-point, soft-gold star, with a sparkling ruby the size of one's thumbnail inset at the center of the star.

The more immediately noticeable change about her version of the costume, however, was the cape design. Instead of the three-streamer method that she had given to Sakura, hers was of a more simplistic, full-length design. The cape was also not directly attached to the hem of the neck line, but was rather clipped into place by simple metal clasps that were ingeniously made invisible by hidden pockets that had been stitched into the shoulders.

Down at the bottom edge of the concave-cut cape, hanging off of elongated points at each of the cape's two corners, were the three symbols of her friends' powers. Each one was hanging from a separate thread that was attached to their respective corner, and for each step that she took, they clattered peacefully against one another like crystalline wind chimes.

So she had had the desired effect upon entering the room, certainly, but the level of embarrassment that she was feeling, at them seeing her in one of her own works, was nearly unbearable. Tomoyo was actually starting to sorry for Sakura, now that she had finally had a taste for herself of what she must have put her dear friend through each and every time she brought out a new costume. Had she honestly put Sakura through all of this excessive attention and nerve racking scrutiny? It was near to overwhelming!

Yet when she heard the group's final deliberations on her personalized costume, those thoughts went right out the window.

"I was right, wasn't I? Simply beautiful," Reios commented, while keeping both his gaze, and a familiar-looking video camera (which Tomoyo had immediately noticed him using), centered steadily onto Tomoyo's flowing grace. He didn't need to scan around with her camera to see the affirming nods from all of the others.

"You truly are a work of art, both in mind and in physical manifestation," Eriol noted cordially, with as much charm as his England blood could muster.

"That's quite the assessment," Syaoran marked dryly, while glaring at the Englishman, out of habit, with narrowed eyes, "though it's a correct one."

Sakura's reply, which would personally hold the most weight for Tomoyo, was a bit more enthusiastic than the others. It was rather akin to a standing ovation, by comparison, and especially considering that Sakura had rushed straight up to Tomoyo to examine her more closely, "Tomoyo, this is amazing! You look absolutely wonderful in that dress! You've really outdone yourself this time. I'm so glad, I finally got to see you in one of our special costumes!"

All of the high praise, especially that which had come from her best friend, was pushing Tomoyo's emotions to their limits. In particular, that one word that Sakura had just used really did it for her: _our_. These clothes weren't _just_ Sakura's costumes anymore, she now realized. Sakura was not the only one who would be wearing them, anymore. Neither were they _just_ her own, with the intent solely placed on making that specific person look her cutest. No, she could not hide away behind these false reasonings anymore, for these were undoubtedly _their_ costumes. Tomoyo was just as much a part of it, now, as was anyone else in the group.

She held a special gaze momentarily in Sakura's direction, before she smiled brightly to the rest of the warmth and praise that had greeted her, "Thank you, everyone."

Satisfied that he had done well by his suggestion from the previous week, Reios placed aside Tomoyo's video camera, and removed his wrist from his still-enfolded arms to check the time, "Well, it's almost a quarter past four. I guess that means that we had better get going soon, huh?"

Tomoyo nodded in agreement, "Yes, it would probably be best if we headed out now. If we go by vehicle, we should arrive with more than enough time to spare to search out a comfortable location to watch the ceremony from. Being early should allow us some freedom of movement, as well, since the shrine will still be clear of any major crowding."

Everyone else came to the same conclusion, and soon began filing themselves out to the front gate where Tomoyo had already ordered a black limousine to be waiting for them. Yet before any of them could proceed too far beyond the front door and into the garden, Tomoyo stopped them with a sudden cry.

"Ah! Wait, I almost forgot!" she yelped frantically, before dashing back into the house. The lack of an explanation left the others practically bewildered, and even more so when Tomoyo finally reappeared with her mother following close behind her.

Fortunately, an explanation followed along shortly after her return, "I asked Mother to take a photograph of us before we left for the shrine, just in case this ends up being only time that we're able to go out together 'like this' for a while."

With her acute skills in photography easily matching those of Tomoyo's ability, Sonomi soon had them all positioned before a line of white-rose bushes within the garden, with the intention of using the distant backdrop of evergreen trees to further accent the wonderfully clear mid-spring skies above them. The five festival-goers then grouped together for their picture, with Sakura and Tomoyo both kneeling beside and half-facing each other with hands held, while Syaoran half-knelt behind and between them, with his one hand noticeably placed atop of Sakura's nearest shoulder. Eriol and Reios then stood to either side of Syaoran, and also half-faced each other, with Eriol on the right behind Tomoyo and Reios on the left behind Sakura. This spectrum of aligned colors worked to create a kind of balancing effect, as the image that Sonomi was envisioning spread its way across her camera's lens – from darkness, and into light.

The only sad part to it all, was that they would never really know just how well they had actually presented themselves, until later that night. Sonomi promised to have the images fully developed, by then, with copies for each of them.

Her final task for the afternoon having finally been completed, and after assuring everyone of no further interruptions, Tomoyo bid them to climb their way into the awaiting limousine. Within the vehicle's lavishly designed interior, they easily made themselves comfortable for the ride to the Tsukimine Shrine's archway entrance.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	63. The Tsukimine Shrine

_7-5a: The Tsukimine Shrine_

It was strange that, despite it being quite possibly one of the city's most prominent festivals within memory (setting aside its annual Nadeshiko Festival, that is), there were hardly any people milling about. Granted, it was still relatively early. They had arrived with more than an hour's time to spare, after all, but one would have expected there to be at least _some_ various placements of gatherers, here and there. Yet as they left the limousine to approach the shrine's main gate, the only signs of life to be found anywhere were the small scatterings of city workers that were busy with the preparations for the festival's main ceremony, which was to be held later that evening.

It confused everyone else to no end, but Reios merely grinned, "Early, and no crowds to deal with. Perfect. I can do a little exploring before the ceremony begins. Ah, if no one minds, of course."

"Oh, that's right. You've never actually been here before, have you?" Tomoyo asked him.

He replied with a nod of his head, "That's right. Or rather, I've yet to visit _any_ kind of shrine, really. I've been wanting to take a look at a place like this ever since I arrived in Japan."

Sakura took the initiative, and skipped ahead a few paces before spinning about on her companions, sending her costume's trio of streamers spinning about energetically behind her in the process, "Well, how about we give you a tour then? We've been here lots of times before, so we can show you around a bit!"

"Sound's good," Reios remarked, with an appreciative nod and smile, "Where do we start?"

Sakura's smile beamed brightly, as she spun back about and began jogging off into the shrine ahead. The others simply smiled at her enthusiasm for festivals and the like, and continued to follow along at a more normal speed. But with them having gotten only a mere few paces beyond the shrine archway, and with herself being almost a full dozen or so meters past it, Sakura was forced to turn her head back in order to see what was taking the others so long.

"Come on, this way!" she cried back, while still keeping her feet moving. Syaoran raised a hand to caution her against running ahead any further, but by the time that she got the message, it was too late.

Fortunately, Sakura's athletic prowess allowed her, for once, a rather nice recovery from having rammed straight into another person. She immediately moved to assist them, to make up for her error in judgment, and then could not believe her luck when she spied a mat of familiar grey hair set above the gentle pair of silvery eyes.

"Yukito!" she exclaimed, "Why are you here!?"

Another familiar voice caught her attention, before Yukito could move to answer, "Oh? Sakura, you're here for the festival, too?"

She turned about to find her elder brother walking towards them from a nearby side path, with a pair of sodas in his hands. A quick side glance went from Touya to Syaoran, as he took stock of the people that were present with his sister, but he decided not to let it bother him tonight.

"Yeah, we all are," Sakura replied cheerfully, "Tomoyo thought it might be a nice distraction from everything that's been going on lately. Are you two here to see the ceremony, too?"

Her brother passed one of the sodas to Yukito, as he replied, "Yeah. It's been a while since the two of us have had a chance to fully relax, what with all the job-counseling work that we've been taking on lately, so I figured that we were due up for a day off. I am somewhat concerned, now, though."

Sakura's brow furrowed inwards, as confusion overtook her, "About what?"

"Well, with a monster having just stormed through the gates, the safety of the shrine might be at risk."

His sly grin was no match for the rising ire that was plainly visible on Sakura's no-longer-ecstatic features.

"Quit calling me a monster already!" she shouted angrily, heavily stomping her foot down in protest.

Touya leaned in slightly towards Yukito, "Uh oh, the monster's getting riled up. Yuki, we better go see the rest of the shrine, while there's still one to see. Dressed-up monster or not."

Touya continued on with his taunts against his younger sister, all the while keeping a fair distance from her clenched fist as she continually advanced towards him. Syaoran was not too happy that her brother was continually making fun of her, but then he had never really liked the man in the first place, anyway. He almost felt like stepping in to give Sakura the upper hand in her pursuit.

Reios, however, could only sigh to himself in disbelief, and leaned in close to Tomoyo, "I asked about those two already, but... just _how_ often do they go off like that, exactly?"

She only giggled quietly to herself in response, while wearing the exact same ecstatic smile on her face that he had always had trouble reading, ever since they had first met. Enough trouble, in fact, that he was even beginning to become slightly annoyed by it. Again. It was not helping any that her video camera was in the way, either.

He just wished he knew _why_ it was so annoying.

"Hey, come on now. Stop teasing her. Honestly, you're _both_ just a bit too old for that, don't you think?" Yukito admonished Touya, gaining him a scoffing remark as the elder brother finally backed off, though not without passing along one final, sinister gaze for Sakura to fume over. Yukito could only shake his head at it all, even though he always expected such confrontations to take place. Each time the two were brought together. it was as inevitable an occurrence as was the passing of time itself.

So to help diffuse the suddenly tense mood, he made an offer, "How about we all go for a walk down the forest path, while the city workers finish setting up for the ceremony? I know of a really nice, shaded grove that's set behind the shrine's ritual pond. From there, we can watch the entire proceedings undisturbed."

His offer worked exactly as intended, and snapped Sakura right out of her soured thoughts, "Really!?"

"Yeah. Touya and I were headed there, anyway. We can cut through the trees to a hidden trail, just over here," he noted, and indicated a small, half-trodden nature trail that was snaking its way through the underbrush and foliage towards a brick-set trail on the far side, "If we take that trail, we can head around all the way to the back of the shrine."

"Just make sure you don't knock down any trees, on your way through... monster," Touya quickly added, unable to resist just one last poke at his little sister. He was forced to deftly dodged aside, though, as she actually took a swing at him, this time.

One by one, they proceeded through the narrow shortcut that lead to the walkway on the other side of the trees, with those bearing costumes being mindful not to tear anything or get caught on any of the loose branches that were sticking out. Once regrouped, they turned into the path and started to make their way quietly along towards the ponds at the back of the shrine, while becoming mildly and willfully entranced by the peacefulness of the environment that now surrounded them.

The gentle, melodic call of a nearby bird brought some of their collective attention towards the leaves far above, while others stared downwards to glance upon a plot of wild-grown flowers that had survived the winter frost, and were now displaying their full range of colors to their passing spectators. It was a wonder, to some, that they were actually already in bloom. Considering the lack of sunlight that was managing to filter in through the thick blanket of leaves above them, it was amazing enough that anything could even grow here, let alone thrive. And yet the plant life here, within this part of the forest, was flourishing with an almost unnatural tenacity.

Those that had taken a liking to the bird's song soon found such a wonder discovered, when they felt for themselves the sun's rays upon their uplifted faces. They drank deeply of the warmth that struck at them for every other step that they took, relishing in the life-giving energies of the light that was miraculously allowing the natural gardens around them to prosper.

The calmness and serenity of the atmosphere that was pouring down upon them, combined with the overall aura of the shrine's sacred peacefulness, and the greenery's awe-inspiring zest for life, was nothing short of soothing. Perhaps even blissful.

It was _too_ blissful for Eriol's liking, and he hummed to himself inquisitively to make that point.

"What is it?" Syaoran asked, as he slowed down to keep pace with the Englishman. His words brought everyone else turning back towards them, watching and wondering about why Eriol had suddenly stopped behind them. He was staring ahead into nothing, a hand to his chin, as though he had been captivated by an unknown entity.

His eyes passed over Syaoran's but once, with an almost indiscernible nod passing between them in the process. Without explanation, they turned away from each other and walked away, with Syaoran heading to the front of the group with a sudden interest going towards yet another patch of flowers. Meanwhile, the Englishman sorcerer moved himself off towards the right side of the small path, seemingly having become engrossed in something that laid somewhere beyond the tree line. The movement of some wildlife or bird, perhaps, even though Tomoyo and Reios, both of whom were standing nearby him, were unable to detect anything of note within the trees. And yet he stood that way for some time, quiet and perceptive, with neither of them questioning as to why.

Syaoran's head snapped over to his right at just the same time that Eriol made his dive into the underbrush, his arms extending far into the leaves and branches. A muffled cry of surprise accompanied the signs of struggling that followed after the strike, although whatever it was that Eriol had caught seemed to be far too weak to be able to fight against his grip. Slowly, he withdrew his hand from the bush, being careful not to bring injury to the creature, until eventually he was able to reveal a very familiar, yellow, plush-toy-like animal.

"Kero! What are _you_ doing here?" Sakura cried automatically, more surprised than annoyed at having spotted the guardian. Of course, annoyance was surely taking a quick hold upon her. She had told him most specifically to stay home today, since it would have been too big of a risk for him to come along, what with all the potential crowds that they had been expecting. So much for that.

Somehow, Eriol could only find amusement in Kero's valiant struggles and cries for freedom, "Let go! Get off of me already!"

He shook his head to himself, with a sad yet amused grin plastered onto his face. Regardless, he agreed to release the guardian all the same, who made a straight dive away from his captor and in behind the relative safety of his mistress. But his freedom was short lived, unfortunately, when that same mistress spun about on him and plucked him back out of the air with a quick swipe of her hand. She then held him up so that he would be facing eye-to-eye with her.

"I thought I told you to stay home?" she asked flatly, "You _knew_ that there was going to be way too many people here today!"

Kero attempted to plead his case, "But the last time that I got to go to anything special, it was the New Year's feast that your Dad made!"

Syaoran had to roll his eyes at such predictability, "Since there probably hasn't been any large amounts of food or special events since then, if I'm remembering the local festivals correctly, I'd wager that that's what you're here for. Hoping to fill your greedy little gut with some treats from the festival? Do you ever stop thinking about food?"

"Talk to me like that again and I'll roast _you_ up instead!"

Reios found himself glad that he didn't have to deal with any little guardian creatures like that. As Tomoyo was still beside him, he whispered, "Now, I know that _this_ is normal, but it's also kind of sad, too."

"Kero just loves to eat," Tomoyo said simply, with that damned annoying, unreadable smile still on her face. And it remained unreadable even as she lowered the video camera from her eye, making it all the more visible and subsequently more annoying. So Reios merely shrugged at it, sighing heavily to himself.

Yet after a moment more of examining that smile, he just couldn't take it anymore, "Okay, uh... a question, if I may?"

Her smile reversed into a curious frown as she turned to face him, prompting him to verbally note his own curiosity, "You know, uh... about how we all first met? Well... at first, you, err... that is, how come... you trusted me so easily? I know you were a bit... reserved or something, about me back then, but..."

Her frown remained where it was, even after he had trailed off. He sighed quietly at his own stupidity, and scratched at his head, "I'm sorry, I don't even know why I'm asking this..."

That annoying smile of hers came back near instantly.

"I trusted you because Sakura trusted you," she answered simply, her voice now at a half-whisper, "_We _trusted you because you helped us – two complete strangers, in the middle of a random park – when we needed it. You made and kept your promise to keep us all safe, and you are continuing to keep it, even now. That's enough to trust a friend... right?"

And just like that, her smile wasn't annoying to him anymore. If anything, he now found it to be almost... endearing, in a way. It did not even register to Reios that he had been surprised by her answer, despite that it had held none of the hesitation or reservation that he had expected it to. Rather, he was too busy cherishing the warmth of both that smile, _and_ the now reinforced trust that he had forged with these dear friends of his, to even think about being surprised.

After a moment of being visibly stunned by her reply, he took notice of his own gawking and shook it off sharply. Purposefully breaking eye contact, he hesitated for but a moment, and then pointed his own smile towards the ground ahead of him to avoid having to feel embarrassed by his own foolishness. To have come all this way, after that first encounter at the park, and not once had he realized the meanings behind that smile... until now.

He truly was foolish.

"Right," he stated quietly.

"Look, _fine_! You can stay with us," Sakura finally told her guardian, breaking up the three-way argument that had continued on heatedly during Reios and Tomoyo's side discussion, and she was wholly irritated that she was giving up on making Kero return home, "but you absolutely _have_ to stay hidden! Go ride in mine or Tomoyo's purse, and _don't_ come out unless we say you can!"

Even though it really should not have mattered, Kero erred on the side of caution and dove right for Tomoyo's purse, climbed into it, and zippd it up by himself. Sakura rolled her eyes at that, and purposefully let out an exasperated sigh.

"Great, another brat to deal with," Touya muttered under his breath. Luckily for him, the group had started to move on again, putting Syaoran just out of earshot, but he was not to be so fortunate with the late-arrival guardian and his cat-like hearing. An orange head popped back out of Tomoyo's purse, upon hearing that utterance, and paused just long enough to scan for witnesses before spitting a thin stream of fire at Touya's left leg, which he quickly felt and hastily worked to put out. Yet the best he could do, in terms of a retaliation, was glare intimidatingly at those beady eyes and stuck-out tongue until they slipped their way back into the purse, even as he fought against his steadily-increasing vexation to maintain a sense of calm.

Sakura took notice of her elder brother's heated gaze, and asked, "What is it?"

Touya merely looked away, with his arms crossed, failing miserably in hiding the combination of intense anger and coloring embarrassment, "It's nothing."

Between – and despite – continued, sporadic bouts of infighting (or more specifically, between Kero, Syaoran, and Touya), they eventually managed to make their way to the far side of the shrine. They soon after reached the opening in the trees that Yukito had described, which allowed them a magnificent view of the Moon Mirror Pond's naturally stilled waters from its far side.

The way the banks of the pond had been built up, the waters had been granted a full reprieve from any breeze or wind that would spring up above it, allowing it the look of its namesake in all but the most powerful of windstorms. It was a design made possible only through nature's divine work of architecture. This fact alone was what had brought Sakura to question her former teacher about its purpose, all those years ago, and even now she found herself fascinated by the naturally-stilled waters.

At night, the waters were indeed given to the appearance of a grand mirror, reflecting the night sky's full glow and beauty from its surface. During the day, however, the clear waters allowed an unhindered view of the ground beneath the water, and of the smoothed rocks and sporadic shoots of plant life. Such was the case here, on this clear-sky afternoon, and it was something that caused Sakura to wonder at its natural properties all the more.

"Looks like they're still setting up for the ceremony."

At Syaoran's words, she looked up and across the lake to the dock on the far side. From there, she noted a pair of workers that were tinkering away at some kind of black panel that had been set upon a makeshift platform. It was connected by various cords and wires to a set of large stereo speakers, all of which were pointed into the trees and towards the main path of the shrine. A sound system, by the looks of things.

"The town mayor is supposed to be coming in to give a speech for the ceremony, at the request of the shrine's head priest," Yukito informed them, squinting against the afternoon sun to see across the pond for himself, "They're probably making sure that nothing's going to go wrong tonight."

Touya hummed a note of indifference, "Well, at the rate they're going, we can probably go back to the shrine entrance to buy some drinks for the rest of you, and then make it back here with time to spare. Anyone want anything?"

"Melon soda!" came a muffled cry from Tomoyo's purse. Touya threw his hands up into the air at the guardian's persistence.

They continued along the second half of the path, while discussing what they all wanted to have. The intention was to take the path's full course and come around full circle to the front of the shrine again. As they neared another grove of shady trees, on the far side of the clearing, Sakura slowed to a stop just before the trees would have blocked her view of the waters nearby. Unsure of something, she turned and faced the waters, scrutinizing them heavily.

There was not any breeze flying about that she could feel, let alone any kind of wind that would be strong enough to do the job. Yet despite any of this, the waters of the pond seemed to be acting up from something. She glanced about slowly, but could not find any origin for the disturbance she was witnessing.

A distant cry from the far side of the pond diverted her attention, "Hey, you two! Help us set up this archway over here!"

At that beckoning call, the two workers that had been setting up the sound system left their station and took off through their side of the treeline, eventually disappearing from view completely. Her point of attention having been lost, Sakura glanced at the active waters one last time, shrugged it off, and moved to rejoin the friends that had stopped to wait for her.

She caught up with them easily enough, meeting up with Tomoyo and Reios at the rear of the pack, and together they started their way along the path once again. As they continued, Tomoyo reached up to her shoulders and tugged at the pair of hidden pockets upon them to loosen the clasps that were holding her cape into place. Twisting an arm back behind herself to catch the cape as it fell away, she used her other hand to stretch out the backside of her dress's neckline, before turning to ask her two friends, "Is it just me, or is it getting warmer out here?"

Kero flew out of Tomoyo's purse at about the same time that she uttered her words, putting together enough diminutive suspicion with Tomoyo's just-discovered facts for Sakura to become suddenly concerned. She was right. It was getting warmer, noticeably so, and that was putting the two girls into a tense mood. Despite the fact that they were once again underneath the blessed shade of the forest, it felt as though the sun had burnt away that cover and was now glaring at them fiercely. The fact that it felt like they had just stepped into a sauna only served to put the two girls even more onto edge, as they had experienced such a disturbing sensation just that morning. With near-disastrous results.

When they crossed through into another clearing that held an unobstructed view of the Moon Mirror Pond, Sakura became acutely aware of the danger even before Kero thought to make mention of it.

"Hold up!" he called out to the front of the group, "Something's not right..."


	64. Out of the Frying Pan

_7-5b: Out of the Frying Pan..._

Kero flew out of Tomoyo's purse at about the same time that she uttered her words, putting together enough diminutive suspicion with Tomoyo's just-discovered facts for Sakura to become suddenly concerned. She was right. It was getting warmer, noticeably so, and that was putting the two girls into a tense mood. Despite the fact that they were once again underneath the blessed shade of the forest, it felt as though the sun had burnt away that cover and was now glaring at them fiercely. The fact that it felt like they had just stepped into a sauna only served to put the two girls even more onto edge, as they had experienced such a disturbing sensation just that morning. With near-disastrous results.

When they crossed through into another clearing that held an unobstructed view of the Moon Mirror Pond, Sakura became acutely aware of the danger even before Kero thought to make mention of it.

"Hold up!" he called out to the front of the group, "Something's not right..."

Sakura glanced down into the waters once again, and sure enough, they were still active. Despite the lack of a wind strong enough to do the job, the pond's surface continued to roil and toss itself about with a slowly-increasing intensity. Except that this time, she could tell that the waters were not throwing themselves about because of a mere wind. There was something within the water itself that was causing it to be disturbed, destroying its previous state of perfect stillness and calm. Multitudes of bubbles were rising up from the pond's bed, breaking at the surface to release pockets of steam.

Sakura then noted that the air temperature around her had increased again, and that was when it clicked: the waters were overly active because they were boiling.

"See!?" Kero shouted at Syaoran, with a very much misplaced enthusiasm, "It's a good thing that I tagged along today!"

"Why now?" Syaoran muttered, mimicking the movements of Eriol and Reios as they readied their respective weapons. Sakura quickly backed herself away from the water's edge to join them, closing the gap that Kero and the camera-wielding Tomoyo had left behind in their retreat to the relative protection of Touya and the other false-form guardian.

All at once, the pond ceased to boil, and resumed its mirror-like state as if nothing had ever disturbed it. But from its shallow depths, there rose a singular stream of a seething dark-red flame, and it began to gather in the air above the pond to create a swirling mass of liquid fire. It did not act like a normal fire should have, however, for with its appearance, the ambient temperature in the area suddenly took to dropping back down to what was more normal for this time of year. It was absorbing all of the heat around them into itself, and it was using that heat to build onto itself even more.

While grateful for the sudden relief, this was the last thought to occupy anyone's thoughts. Rather, they were more engrossed in watching the spheroid of swirling flames start to spin itself about on a vertical axis, becoming more and more of an oblong shape as it twirled itself into a proverbial pancake. It eventually managed to flatten itself out completely, becoming a literal roof of molten flame for the waters below it.

By this point, the two guardians had transformed into their true selves, and it was at this moment that the flames above the pond decided to attack. The integrity of the disc-shaped flames wavered for only a moment, before unleashing a blinding and intensive explosion of fire that rushed out in all directions. Syaoran immediately dove in front of Sakura, shielding her from the brunt of the explosion with his own body, while Yue and Kerberos shot their way in front of Touya and Tomoyo and used their combined powers to shield everyone against the blast. Eriol also acted quickly, by shielding both himself and Reios behind as much of his own magic as he could muster.

Once the blast had died off, everyone at first believed themselves to have been somehow successful. There was not a single scratch or burn on anyone, nor had anyone been required to utilize any excessive amounts of magic to defend themselves. At a second take, however, they found themselves no longer within the shrine grounds, but rather within a new world made up of rock, fire, and more fire. They now stood atop a very large, circular platform made up of a dark red volcanic rock, and the fact that they were now imprisoned there by a towering dome of flowing lava did not escape anyone's notice.

As the first to recover from the shock of being attacked, Eriol stepped carefully forward and away from the wall of the lava dome behind them, and more towards the center of the platform. Two meters into covering their roughly thirty meter diameter prison, a slight magical glow appeared beneath him. He stopped in his tracks, as the semblance of a magical circle came into effect: a large, flame-like symbol set atop an unfamiliar yet plain magic circle design, with its inscriptions written out in only the English language. Its simplistic design encompassed the majority of the platform's surface, save for the stretch of two meters that was set between him and the wall of lava behind him. That stretch ringed about the whole circumference of the place, giving him the feeling of being inside a great big arena.

Unfamiliar though the glowing circle may have been, Eriol nonetheless recognized it almost immediately as the representation of a sorcerer who wielded the elemental powers of fire. The form of such a sorcerer then came into focus soon after this awareness, as if by cue, it's body passing straight through the dome of lava on the far side of the "arena". It was, itself, completely encompassed within a swirling sphere of fire, an effect that served to silhouette its physical form and subsequently make it quite impossible to identify.

"And so we face the final task," Eriol uttered unexpectedly, noting the presence of Reios and Sakura beside him as he spoke.

"Then that's...?"

Eriol nodded to Sakura query, and replied, "The elemental spirit of fire."

A burst of light from the spirit served to remove its spherical shroud, and revealed a humanoid form comprised completely of burning flame and dripping lava. As it set itself upon the very center of the platform, its coal-black eyes turned to face the three challengers that had stepped into its circle. From there, it decided to make its presence known verbally.

"Within the circle stands those three chosen to defend life," called out its deep and foreboding voice, "Those in audience shall stand in veneration, as witnesses to this struggle. The circle shall protect those without a cause, yet their grace shall be shattered by intervention."

"What is he prattling about?" Reios muttered.

"Silence!" the demonic form shouted out commandingly, "Give no words! Show only your proof of strength! Come, face me!"

Without any further speech, the spirit began to levitate up into the air once again, and beckoned to its three opponents with only its intensive gaze.

"Fine, if you want a fight – Release!" Reios cried, releasing his key to wield it alongside his re-sized katana, "Then you can have it! Grant my blades the strength of the oceans wrath! Watery!"

"You fool! Don't rush in alone!" came a sharp roar from Kerberos, but it went unheeded. Instead, Reios shot head-long towards the spirit before his two companions could follow his lead, with both of his swords raised up at his sides like a pair of wings. Both of those steel lengths were glowing a bright cerulean blue with the elemental water that he had infused into them, and were even flinging about droplets of water with each rushed step that he took.

Reios's right hand came back behind him as he angled his upper body for a spinning slice against the spirit's molten body, intending to bring both of his swords down upon it. Yet he was forced to throw himself to the side and flat onto the rocky ground at the last second, all just to barely avoid the wall of flames that had erupted right into his path. Realizing right away that he would never be able to get close enough, even as the wall of fire died away as quickly as it had appeared, he rolled onto his back and threw all of his weight into a feign swing. He used the momentum of his two swords to send the raw elemental power of his Watery arcing up and away from himself, and from there to come crashing down into the awaiting spirit.

Just before impact, the water attack impacted against an invisible field and simply evaporated, leaving nothing left but rising steam to stand before Reios and the spirit that he had futilely attacked. He shot up to his feet, silent and amazed, and all but swore that he could see a malefic grin emerging from the spirit's featureless facial area. His stunned state also did not allow him any time for a reaction, as he was struck by a direct onrush from the spirit itself. The lightning-quick shoulder tackle sent Reios flying fast to the far edge of the "arena" that they all currently inhabited, and audibly forced all the wind out of him in the process. His landing was visibly harsh, as he bounced and tumbled a few extra paces before skidding to a stop, causing everyone even more worry beyond the fact that he was not trying to get up.

"Shield!" Eriol cried, surprising Sakura immensely as the two found themselves suddenly on the defensive against an unrelenting wave of liquid fire. The attack was reflected away easily enough, thanks to Eriol's quick thinking, but the rebound of the attack sent both flame and lava flying out in every possible direction.

Then Sakura picked up on a piercing scream of fright from her best friend far behind her, and spun about sharply to discover the cause. From there, she found a bottomless terror welling up within her at the sight of a large portion of the reflected attack flying straight towards the edge of the field where Tomoyo, her brother, and her two guardians were still waiting. Her imagination flew wildly with the potential end results for several differing versions of this horrifying scenario, and all of them were providing only the most unforgiving of conclusions as to their safety. She could not bear to watch such a disaster take place, and cringed away from the sight before it could happen.

Yet at the last moment, just before the impact that would surely have incinerated the majority of her family, a powerful wave of energy struck out from the edge of the glowing magic circle upon the ground and began to eat away at the remnants of the fire attack before it could do any serious harm to those watching. Various other points along the circle's outer perimeter were also absorbing the far-flung magma strike into itself, removing the current threat from the field. And when the circle's enchantment effect finally subsided, and allowed her a clear view of what laid beyond, Sakura found herself unable to describe the level of relief that she felt at seeing her friends all still in one piece.

"Hesitation shall only earn death, when faced with the flames of valor and strength!"

Sakura glanced momentarily at the fallen Reios, then straightened her back against the spirit and its taunting. Ignoring his cries of warning, she walked purposefully through and away from Eriol's protective Shield and advanced forward towards the center of the field. She could feel her magic rising up sharply within her with each step that she took, a potent energy that was being fueled by her equally rising emotions. A memory then came to the forefront of her mind as she went, of something that Kero had once told her on how to combat magical flame. Under that guidance, she chose this moment to enact the full potential provided to her by the Stars, her thoughts and power driven on by an anger derived from the ill-fated Reios and her endangered friends.

"Guide each other through towering inferno, and strike as one with combined ferocity! Windy! Watery!"

Her cards vanished above her sky-pointed wand, and reappeared as their true forms of the avatars of wind and water. Then, as commanded, they began to merge their two powers together, combining into a singular being to create a new physical form resembling that of a chimeric-like creature. It had a green-scaled tail not at all unlike a mermaid's, while its upper, female-like, blue-tinted body and flowing blue hair were protected by several weaving wisps of wind and water that spiraled all around it. Awakening to its new existence to reveal its heterochromatic eyes of green and blue, the chimera lifted a pair of clawed hands skyward, and charged with all possible speed to engage its enemy.

The spirit reacted by sending another stream of liquid fire against the chimera and its master, and as strong a one as it could have possibly mustered by the feel of its magical strength. Sakura was well aware that if those flames managed to reach her, she would not survive against them without Eriol's protection. Yet she trusted in her cards, and poured even more of her power into them to prove just that.

Also aware of the oncoming attack's full potential, the chimera drank in all of the magical energy that its mistress could provide, and used its combined powers to create a warding wall of wind and water to deflect and fend off the oncoming assault. The two powers met together with a deafening boom of power, creating a continuing buildup of opposed and reflected magic until the air around the two combatants became too magically charged to bear it. The resultant explosion sent both the spirit and the chimera flying off away from each other, their strengths both visibly deteriorated. In fact, the chimera had used up so much of its own power in its defensive attempt that it could no longer hold itself together. It was forced to split apart into its original two forms shortly after collapsing to the ground near the edge of the arena.

The spirit recovered itself long before Windy and Watery could even manage to try and get up, and remarked loudly, "Did you learn nothing from my brethren and I!? Standing alone, you are as nothing!"

He followed up his shout by sending a small projectile of flame flying straight for Sakura. Her reaction time was agonizingly slow for those watching, and they all cried out in horror as the bright-red arrow made a direct impact against her. As fortune would favor them, however, her staff took the brunt of the attack, and instead only had her flying off towards the edge of the circle to join her companion cards. Still taken by a determination of steel, Sakura struggled vainly to stand back up, fighting hard against the pain of her slightly singed fingers. She was only mildly aware of Tomoyo frantically screaming her name.

Her head turned towards the center of the field as her full awareness came back to her, her eyes pulling wide open as a vicious stream of liquid flame rushed straight towards her. It was all too sudden, and with no time to react, she merely laid there and waited for the inevitable.

The flames reflected away at the last second, with the majority of the attack instead being absorbed by the arena's unseen outer barrier, rather than a human girl. Sakura forced herself back onto her feet, as she focused to trace the magical essence of whatever it was that had just protected her. She mentally followed the nearly visible line of magic to a battered and struggling Reios on the far side of the arena, his hand outstretched against a glowing Shield card. His chest was heaving heavily with the effort of having defended her, his eyes flaring open wildly with a fierce determination of his own.

"So you awaken. Care to try me again?" the spirit taunted him, turning away from both Sakura and Eriol to beckon the impulsive warrior into another charge.

While still maintaining his Shield card, Reios pulled another away from his pocket. Tossing it in front of him, he struck at it viciously with the crystal pommel of his sword.

"Storm!"

Swirling magical winds arose from the ground beneath the spirit, engulfing it within a barrier-like tornado before it could think to counterattack. Reios retracted his Shield card immediately after, and made a mad dash back to Eriol and Sakura. They both noted that he was moving with a slight limp to his left leg, a pain that was visibly compounded by his efforts in having to maintain the Storm's immense power requirement against the fire spirit.

He arrived back to them almost completely out of breath, and was forced to double over, with his hands held to his knees, to support himself . Now that they were up close and personal, Sakura and Eriol could easily see the charred remains of the leather plating that had once protected his chest, as well as the half-blackened emerald shirt that was now visible behind it, both the results of the unexpected tackle that he had taken. He took in a gulp of air and forced himself to stand upright, a movement that caused various flakes of burnt cloth and leather to fall away from him.

"That won't hold for much longer," he asked quickly, "Any ideas?"

"Combine your strengths!" came a call from the edge of the arena, bringing their collective attention to Kerberos, "The spirit said so itself! You have to fight together to equal and best its power!"

"Silence, soulless one!" came another roar, as a pair of flaming arms emerged from the Storm's walls of wind. Moments later, the entire tornado was dispelled in a rush of heated wind to reveal a rather displeased spirit.

Not too keen on having to take orders, Kerberos charged straight into the battlefield and took flight to as high as the dome of flame would allow. At the apex of his climb, he released a barrage of fire against his opponent. Of course, being of the same element, the spirit merely swiped away the attack with nothing more than a gesture of his hand, but was forced to dodge aside as Kerberos used the distraction to try and swoop into close range with his claws fully extended. Landing heavily to the ground, Kerberos re-centered onto his target and launched himself again.

The spirit evaded to the side again, and countered with a lightning-quick tackling charge that ended up sending Kerberos flying clear through the dome of lava and completely out of sight. The spirit held its gaze on Kerberos's departure point just long enough to mutter, "You should not have interfered..."

Seeing yet another of her friends being taken out was more than Sakura could handle, causing her anger-fueled determination to awaken once again, "Reios, distract it. I don't care how. Eriol, get your water-based cards out and try to weaken it. When it's not looking, I'll come at it with everything I have. Got it?"

Reios merely grinned, and drew both of his swords back into the open. Being the distraction meant that he could have a bit of fun with it. As he turned towards the spirit, that grin immediately washed itself away only to be replaced by a dread gaze of determination.

He cried out the name of his next card, "Firey!"

The spirit laughed to itself that the warrior would foolishly use its own element, but it soon withdrew its confidence when Reios charged once again at it, his swords raised and held back for a spinning strike much like he had done before. Except, unlike before, its opponent had now coated himself within a shield of his own flames, thereby making himself invulnerable to its attacks. The spirit dodged aside deftly, as the first of multiple swings came at it, but even its grand power found a considerable difficulty in evading the sheer ferocity of Reios's attacks. No human was perfect, however, and it eventually found an opening through Reios's technique in which to strike. Reios managed to block the brunt of the ensuing attack by crossing his swords defensively, but the strike exerted such a force that the dual-wielder was still sent skidding back several meters.

The spirit lifted its fist to charge and strike again, when it spotted a figure of white to its side. It turned to find itself pitted against a maiden dressed in the purest of white robes, with Eriol standing behind her and wearing a wily grin.

"Bury these flames within your raging blizzard! Snow!

The card obeyed the command, and sent a massive gust of wind and snow flying away from her extended arms. The spirit merely laughed aloud as the blizzard melted away long before reaching its body, with the multitude of snowflakes amassing themselves instead as pathetic looking puddles upon the ground. Certainly nothing that could be considered a threat, since it was able to float far _above_ the ground, if it so wished. Just the simplistic levitation that it was currently employing, leaving it just a foot or so off of the ground, was more than enough to render such an attack useless. So after a moment of amusement, it sent a projectile of flame flying into Snow's physical body, and dispelled the card with less than a minimal effort.

It redirected its focus to take a second shot at Eriol, when an enraged cry from nearby forced it to dodge away from another swipe of Reios's swords. But this time, instead of pursuing his attack as he should have, Reios leapt away from his offensive as soon as he had made the first swing. The spirit spun about as it realized the distraction, and was unable to stop Eriol from invoking his next card.

"Wash through my enemy to douse raging flame! Wave!"

Utter amazement, quickly followed by unnatural pain, pounded against the spirit as wave upon wave of water leapt away from the puddles that had built up from the melted blizzard, and splashed continuously into its flame-covered body. The two-tiered attack allowed neither any time for it to erect a barrier of heat to evaporate the onslaught, nor a chance to float further up and escape the water's reach. Within seconds, it had dropped back down its short way to the firmament, all while continually being set upon by unrelenting waves of water. It resistance was feeble and lacking, right up until it had had enough of the pain that its opposing element was causing to it. It instinctively released a wave of force energy with all of its strength, in order to parry the threat from both Eriol and Reios. The shock wave ended up sending the two sorcerers flying back towards their respective edges of the field.

It took to its feet cautiously, its now-visible eye sockets alight with a crimson glow. Everyone took an immediate notice to the rest of its now-revealed form, all of which was an uncanny resemblance to what must have once been a normal human body. The major difference was that it was now all charred and burned away, leaving nothing but blackened, smoking flesh to highlight its searing eyes of fire. This gruesome display only added to the despair that was derived from the fact that it was still able to act.

Sakura reacted with her own power before the spirit could do the same, and once again sent in the powers of her recovered Windy and Watery cards to end the struggle.

Enraged beyond telling at having been violated, the spirit raised its hands high above itself, and began floating into the air and away from its opponents. It invoked all of its remaining power, as it went, to create a miniature sun far above them at the very pinnacle of the fiery dome. The unexpected jump in air temperature was almost unbearable, causing Sakura's concentration to waver just enough to give her cards pause. The spirit laughed gleefully, almost insanely, as it threw its hands forward to hurtle the massive ball of flame directly against her.

She immediately withdrew her two cards, dispelling them to instead ready the full strength her protective Shield card. Yet from the severe intensity of the magic and heat that she could feel from the manufactured sun above her, she knew that it would not be enough. She knew that her Shield would not last anywhere beyond a handful of seconds before giving out to release Hell's fury upon her, turning her into nothing more than ash. Still, she had to put _some_ kind of defense up, anything to try and deflect the attack away from her two companions, if nothing else. So as she readied to throw the card in front of her, she somehow found herself on the far side of the field, and nowhere near the path of the deadly mini-sun.

She reoriented herself, and traced back the thin line of magic that had momentarily connected herself with Reios. It did not take her long to figure out that he had literally swapped their positions with what was likely one of his changed cards. She then looked on in horror as she realized what it was he was doing.

He merely stood there in her place, staring defiantly at that miniature sun, and otherwise did absolutely nothing to try and defend himself. It was obvious that he would have as little a chance of survival as she would have had, even if his Shield card had been active. Except that it was _not _active, and he did not look like he was about to cast any other spells any time soon. Unable to accept what he was trying to do, she cried out desperately to him, "What are you doing!? Reios, get out of there!"

Eyes closed and mind concentrated onto the attack that was flying fast towards him, he was wholly ignorant of her plea. He instead rose his sword high above himself, and bowed his head as if in acceptance of his fate. Another moment later, and he was fully engulfed by the swirling mini-sun as it slammed into the ground around and beneath him. Several screams and cries of disbelief flew away in all directions, as their friend disappeared from sight.

Until a voice emerged from the flames, ringing clearly through the air, "Forest breaker, lord of inferno..."

Slowly, the fireball's magic began to shrink away, as its powers were absorbed into a red-hot length of steel that was pointing its way through the top of the diminishing mass. The thing holding it aloft was revealed to be a pair of unscathed hands, followed by a familiar face. Its eyes were still closed, though its mouth was grinning widely with a strange confidence.

Its eyes then snapped wide open, "Searing Call! Draw into my power and become one with the stars! Staff!"

With the last of the flames absorbed into his weapon, Reios tossed a card out before him and struck the crystal pommel of his red-tinted sword against it to reform the weapon into a wizard-like Staff, placing the searing heat of the spirit's absorbed magic directly into the transformation process itself. Straightening himself up, he struck his new weapon hard into the ground with a loud grunt to make it enact his commands. Immediately, Sakura could feel her magical strength increase by ten-fold from the infusion of power, and she wasted no time in utilizing her new advantage.

"Freeze!" she cried, invoking her card and sending the fish-like avatar of ice flying fast towards the spirit's blackened body. Just before impact, the avatar reformed itself into a giant block of ice and smashed down into the levitating spirit with the full force of its charge. Having shot the spirit right into the ground, Freeze then shattered itself into an innumerable amount of ice shards, and sent each one of its near-infinite blades shooting straight towards where the spirit had landed. A scream of agony escaped the growing cloud of ice and snow, as the razor-sharp shards fired indiscriminately at both the ground and the spirit itself.

Just as the cry of agony began to die away, so too did the world of flame around them fade, enveloping them within a momentary field of blinding darkness before returning them to the real world. Sakura soon realized that they were at the shrine entrance, and not behind the pond as they had been originally, but paid it little mind. She, more importantly, chose to rush off towards Tomoyo and the others, where the separated Eriol, Reios, and Kerberos were all also regrouping.

"Is everyone all right?" she asked quickly as she neared, "Kero, what happened?"

"He sent me flying, that's what," the massive lion replied, and none too happily at that, "Fortunately, it only ejected me from his little dimension, dropping me back here. I find it odd that we were returned to the shrine entrance, though."

"Where I returned you to matters not," came a familiar – if gentler – voice from behind them, "It is only my defeat that should be the primary topic."


	65. To Release Them

_7-5c: To Release Them_

"Is everyone all right?" she asked quickly as she neared, "Kero, what happened?"

"He sent me flying, that's what," the massive lion replied, and none too happily at that, "Fortunately, it only ejected me from his little dimension, dropping me back here. I find it odd that we were returned to the shrine entrance, though."

"Where I returned you to matters not," came a familiar – if gentler – voice from behind them, "It is only my defeat that should be the primary topic."

They all spun about to find a man standing beneath the archway, his charred and blackened face just barely visible underneath the brown, full-body cloak and brown leather gloves that covered him. They all immediately went back on the defensive.

"Put your weapons down," the cloaked spirit ordered, "I told you, I am defeated. I will not struggle further."

"And we should believe you... why?" Reios inquired, leveling his katana with the spirit's head in preparation for an attack.

The spirit crossed his arms at them impatiently, "Because it would demean the honor of my element. I am not so far gone that I would betray my own power and beliefs, despite his best efforts."

Such cryptic words served to make Sakura curious. Against the better judgement of both her friends and herself, she lowered her guard in favor of asking, "What do you mean?"

"It means that he's not an actual elemental spirit," Eriol replied, taking the spotlight from the defeated spirit, "Our previous opponents had all been mere spiritual entities within a chosen physical form. They were all capable of existing as both man and magic, but they were not originally a part of our physical world. Our friend here, on the other hand, is still mostly human. He has lived in this world from the start, just like any of us. "

Eriol then turned to address the spirit directly, "You are a half-blooded Draconian, if my former self's memory is serving me correctly, now. As a descendant of the full-blooded Draconians, you are a human infused with the blood of the ancient and extinct race of dragons. To be specific, a sub-race of dragons that had chosen to take on a more discreet form of living as humans."

"Verily, Clow Re–," the spirit stopped himself mid-word, "No, you are Eriol Hiiragizawa now, the _reincarnation_ of Clow Reed. With you are Syaoran Li, blood descendant of Clow Reed; Sakura Kinomoto, successor to Clow Reed; Tomoyo Daidouji, chronicler and friend; and Reios Dycenar, knight with a forsaken past."

Reios scowled slightly at having to hear his surname, but the Dracon-man continued on regardless, "And I am Richard Quillen, a sorcerer of the flame and Elder Magistrate to the now-disbanded Grand Order of Merlin, a wizard's guild out of Great Britain. The blood of my mother was that of a pure Draconian, and my father was an Englishman. Thus, I am one-half of a beast. That I was not fully human to begin with was my only advantage against 'him', and whether he ever realized this or not is now beyond my care. I have now done what Clow Reed has asked of me in order to deter him."

Syaoran voiced what everyone else wanted to ask at that moment, "You knew Clow Reed!? But he died–!"

"A long time ago, yes," said this Richard, cutting off Syaoran's statement with a raised, glove-covered hand, "But dragons can live for many centuries, a trait that their human offspring often share in. It was such that I was but a whelp, back then. I was barely out of my forties, by human aging, when I first met him. Of all the people that were surely available, Clow Reed had come to _me _during his world tour to seek out those with the strength to put down a great darkness. Though no one else of the guild would even think to meet him, I – a mere acolyte, at the time – agreed to aid his cause.

"It took us several decades to track down and isolate the darkness that Clow Reed was so fervently seeking. While he continued onwards with his worldly journey, I spent that time growing in both influence and power within the Order. But by the time that I had achieved a rank of authority, I had been all but disowned by the guild for openly supporting the campaign of the 'madman from the east'. The only thing that kept me in power was my lineage as a Draconian; a lineage which my fellow guild mates feared. I used what little influence that such a fear kept to me to have the guild's tomes and historical references searched and researched. I had soothsayers and scryers, augurs, oracles and prophets, people of power from all over the world assist in our quest, until we finally were able to narrow down our search and corner the source of Clow's distress.

"But in the end, however, our efforts proved fruitless. Though Clow Reed had previously sealed away the dark master's minions, the very same spirits that you have fought up and to this point, we were no match for the demon himself, once we had finally set up to confront him. Even while standing alongside the greatest sorcerer humanity has ever known, in my comparative inexperience I still ended up falling before our foe during the ensuing battle. My mind was consumed with thoughts of rage before I could even think to recover myself, and a sourceless desire for vengeance overtook my entire being. I had succumbed to the darkness without even being allowed to lift a finger in defense. After that, it was all Clow Reed could do to seal away both myself and my new master."

"Within the sealed prison, my 'master' continued to place his influence over my every waking moment. Although, with the blood of my all-wise dragon ancestors also whispering its thoughts to me, I was able to somewhat block him out. In time, I learned how to resist him completely, and I was even able to extend a miniscule portion of my resilience to my six prisoner companions. And yet I willingly continued to play the part of the loyal servant.

"Since he had already known that we would not win the day, Clow Reed had revealed to me beforehand of the ruse that I was to play for him: the distraction. To buy time for the world to come to its senses and band together against this threat, I willingly allowed myself to fall victim to the darkness. It is my obligation to a long-time friend, together with the whispers of my ancestors, that have kept my mind in check up and to this very moment."

"So, wait," Syaoran interrupted, unable to believe anything of what he was hearing and thinking, "You mean to say that you fought us on _purpose_?"

Richard bobbed his cowled head slightly, "For as much as I did not want to, yes, that is the case. Had I chosen not to, it would have only raised the 'master's' suspicions of me, and he would have attempted to exact a full control over my mind. Had such a thing occurred, I fear that our struggle would have continued until both of our sides had perished. Besides, I was told by a certain someone to 'not hold back', so that is exactly what I did. My only regret was that I could not tell her the whole truth of this matter, and instead was forced to play the fool against her questions. There was so much that I could have told her; so much that I could have answered for her. And yet to have revealed myself so early would have compromised my position as my master's 'trusted' lackey."

Reios shook his head at what he was hearing, "I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that. If you were strong enough to resist this guy's control for so long, you had no reason to attack us. For that matter, who do you keep referring to, anyway? The other elemental spirits referenced him, as well – this big and powerful 'dark master' that everyone's so afraid of. If he's so all-powerful, why doesn't he just come out and do all the work himself?"

Richard Quillen remained still and motionless in his spot. Any potential reactions to the questions and comments being aimed at him were completely unnoticeable, "Believe it or not as you will, but my reasons for eventually attacking you will remain as I have said. As for he to whom I refer, he is the one that has orchestrated all of this. He has pulled into this world an incredible power, a sourceless energy beyond the reckoning of all those that live. It is with this that he controlled the minds of the elements, both in Clow Reeds time and in the present day. He has maintained his place within the shadows, manipulating his peons to do his bidding so that he might conserve and build up his powers for some grander design. He has used his otherworldly strength to outright break the laws of nature, granting himself immortality and an unnatural magical prowess. All for a purpose that still remains mostly unclear to me."

"Yet the spirits of thunder and earth both spoke as if they knew of the reasons for all of this," Reios countered, "Care to explain that?"

Richard shook his shrouded head slowly, "Whatever knowledge it is that the real elemental spirits had, they withheld from me because they did not fully trust someone who was not one of their own. Whatever purpose it is that this madman has for his accumulated power was either never truly discovered by my guild, or went to the grave along with Clow Reed. All that I know is that he sought a power of infinite potential, has found it, and is now harnessing it quietly."

"Well that's convenient," Reios muttered, turning his back to the man and pacing off away from them.

The length of Richard's cloak fluttered suddenly as his head tilted sharply skyward, causing a tension to rise in the air at the unexpected motion. Without moving further, he told them, "He seeks me again. Persistent, as always. In my weakened state, I fear that I would not be able to resist him this time, and in my resultant insanity I would only attempt to do you further harm. I can only pray that our duel has bought her enough time."

The fire sorcerer kneeled down slowly, "I now ask that you put me away, as you have done with the others, in punishment for my crimes."

Both wanting to save this man from the dark clutches of whatever was controlling him, as well as not wanting to have to go through all that fighting all over again, Sakura stepped forward to enact her incantation, "Elements of creation, let this spirit return, its mind as its own! Spirit, discard your strength, and seek new strength from thought! Inferno, be disjoined!"

Time and space twisted itself about the cloaked figure, pulling him into the spell's singular point. Before the spell could complete itself, however, he managed to utter out one last phrase.

"Good luck, and be careful..."

When the air around the spell cleared up from its implosion, what was left behind was a ruby-red crystalline orb resting below a floating aura of crimson red. It was dispelled by a simple blast of magic energy from Eriol's staff, himself being too tired to invoke a card and take care of the task properly. Sakura, meanwhile, reached down to pick up the crystal that was lying upon the ground.

"So now what?" Reios called from the side of the walkway, where he had seated himself onto a nearby stone-worked bench.

"Now, we go and enjoy the festival," Eriol replied, "Hopefully, the ceremony hasn't started without us yet, although I fear we'll have to forgo buying any refreshments if we want to make it there on time."

Reios waved off Eriol's words impatiently, as if neither response was good enough for him, "Either we go rest back behind the pond and watch the ceremony, or go have those drinks. Regardless of which, I need to take a break first."

With the waving about of his hand and arm, Sakura was able to take a better stock of the charred remains of Reios's leather chest plate. From seeing that, her concern flared right back up again, "You're not injured are you? That was a pretty bad shot you took. Your clothes look worse for wear, too."

"What, this?" Reios inquired, lifting some of the remains of the leather away from his shirt, "I've had worse cooking accidents than this. I'll be fine enough."

"What I want to know," Touya put in, stepping into the conversation, "is how you survived being completely enveloped by the big ball of fire that that Richard guy tossed at you, instead of being turned into a pile of ashes."

Reios merely shrugged in answer, although he did pull out a card from his pocket, "I don't really understand how I do it, exactly. All I know is that I switched places with Sakura using this card, the Swap, so that I was in the way instead of her. Then I just pointed my sword at it and, well..."

"It comes from a subconscious tie of the Light being linked to the element of fire," Eriol explained, "Whether it is some property of his key that Clow went and designed, or if he is somehow drawing upon a hidden skill from within himself, it would seem he can absorb his affiliated elements into himself if the need arises."

_The Light chose its avatar well._

Reios was immediately back up onto his feet, searching for the source of the voice along with everyone else. It was the voice of the fire spirit, the Draconian named Richard, that they had all just heard. There was no mistaking it. It had this kind of strange ethereal feel to it, as if the words were coming from inside of their very heads, but it was definitely him.

At first, they could locate nothing, until Sakura noted that a powerful aura was floating right in front of her. It felt familiar, in a way. It was similar to the spirits that they all had worked to seal away, except that this presence before her was quite different at the same time. This power was not corrupted, like all of those visible auras that she and her friends had dispelled previously. This had a sense of clarity to it, a quality that the enraptured spirits had sorely lacked. What was more, was that it was not just one single entity's presence that she could detect. It was more like several.

In accordance to her awareness, six crystalline orbs materialized into view before her, with the seventh crystal of fire floating away from her hands to join up with them. After the ruby-red orb had lined up with the others, the green crystal, the one containing the mind of the wind, pulsed with thought.

_As did the Darkness, and the Stars. Truly out-matched, we were. A strange twist of fate, that those meant to perish instead saved._

The yellow orb, that of the earth, pulsed in turn, _Our wast'd minds could ne'er have foreseen such an outcome!_

The mind of the skies, of thunder and lightning, spoke, _Still, it has proven to be of benefit. Our mental weaknesses gave them the opportunity to free us from 'his' grasp._

_We would thank you properly for your efforts,_ came the voice of the woods,_ but we would also ask one final favor of yourselves._

_ Release us of our prisons,_ came the request from the mind of the waters, so _that we may return to our natural worlds peacefully._

A small moment of silence passed by afterwards, a mildly anticlimactic experience, before Richard's voice pulsed out from its new home within the ruby-colored crystal, _Well...? Come on, then! Say something to them!_

Those words were emphasized by that floating red orb hovering itself over and striking itself sharply against the gray-colored crystal that held the mind of the spirit of metal. Goaded in this way, the golem's thoughts replied in a guttural "tone", _I... I sorry. Thank... for... save me..._

Richard's crystalline home glowed with an almost emotional warmth, as though he were laughing, before it again pulsed faintly with thought, _We would all seek sanctuary within our natural elements. For there, we cannot be traced, manipulated, or provoked. To this end, I ask on behalf of my companions: shatter our prisons. Send us home._

By now, Reios had regrouped himself with the others, and together they stepped away from the floating set of crystals to discuss their options more privately. He asked them quietly, "Are we really going to release these guys?"

Eriol shook his head, for once uncertain of their path, "This is a completely different scenario than that which Clow Reed was faced with. This decision is ours alone to make."

A moment of thought brought forth Sakura's answer, "I say we let them go."

"You're sure about this?" Reios questioned again.

She looked straight at Reios, and he saw the certainty within her eyes before she had even thought to voice it, "We've been saving them from this 'dark master' for a purpose. At least, I want to think of it like that. They've been freed from his hold, and they should be free from ours, too. We can't just keep them bottled up like this forever. It would be too cruel, especially after everything they've already suffered through."

"You have a good point there," Reios muttered, turning to eye the floating crystals with a side glance, "But suppose that they come after us again?"

"They cannot," Eriol assured him, "The bulk of their powers were all destroyed when we separated their minds from their strengths, essentially making them as soulless as a few of them claimed our guardian beasts to be. They can only draw upon what little control of their elements remain to them, limiting them to mere minor bouts of mischief if they were to feel so inclined. They have no actual magical ability left for them to utilize."

"How do we free them, then?" Sakura asked.

Eriol turned to face the floating orbs, "We simply do as they say. Shatter their prisons."

"Easy enough," Reios muttered, hefting his still-drawn katana and motioning for the others to stand back. Once they were clear of him, he took up a simple attack stance, with his sword held forward before him. Ceremoniously, he brought it about himself, turning his arms so that the blade was held stretched out to his right, its edge facing towards the seven crystal orbs. With a deep, purposeful breath, he focused his eyes and tightened his grip. His eyes then glazed over with the release of that breath, as he fixated his peripheral sight onto all seven targets, only to draw in and release a second, cleansing breath.

At the start of his third breath, he pulled at the grip of the blade with both of his hands, and set his entire weight into the swing. The blade cut through all seven of the orbs in a single, fluidic motion, splitting them clean in half with ease.

The fourteen halves fell to the ground, loudly shattering to pieces as they impacted against the cement tiling of the shrine grounds. Though it was not visible to the few magically-unaided human eyes among them, they watched as the essences of the seven escaped spirits spiraled about momentarily before shooting off into the earth, all of them questing about for the nearest source of their own respective elements. The presence of those seven spirits disappeared mere moments after contacting the ground, leaving the group once again to their own devices.

Reios ceremoniously sheathed his katana and reverted it back to a pendant, then turned around to his friends, "There, that's done. Let's go watch the ceremony."

They all nodded in agreement, held a moment while the two guardians transferred themselves back into their false forms, and then moved to return to the hidden side-path that would take them around to the backside of the pond again.

They had not taken even three steps before Sakura, who was at the head of the group, stopped herself unexpectedly, impeding them from any further progress.

"Sakura?" Tomoyo asked quietly. With no response following, she circled about to her friend's front side in order to gauge for herself what was wrong. And from what Tomoyo saw of the look upon Sakura's face, she was instantly filled with a nearly overwhelming sense of dread.

Sakura's eyes were flared wide open, with her gaze lacking in any form of awareness as she stared straight ahead into empty space. She had been completely taken in by an unknown source of fear, and was completely unresponsive to Tomoyo's presence before her. Not even slightly shaking Sakura by the shoulders was able to grant Tomoyo any recognition, which began to worry her all the more.

Something indescribably terrible was about to happen, and Tomoyo knew it.


	66. Hidden Behind the Shadow

_7-5d: Hidden Behind the Shadow_

"Sakura?" Tomoyo asked quietly. With no response following, she circled about to her friend's front side in order to gauge for herself what was wrong. And from what Tomoyo saw of the look upon Sakura's face, she was instantly filled with a nearly overwhelming sense of dread.

Sakura's eyes were flared wide open, with her gaze lacking in any form of awareness as she stared straight ahead into empty space. She had been completely taken in by an unknown source of fear, and was completely unresponsive to Tomoyo's presence before her. Not even slightly shaking Sakura by the shoulders was able to grant Tomoyo any recognition, which began to worry her all the more.

Something indescribably terrible was about to happen, and Tomoyo knew it.

Those with the magical senses to do so soon realized it as well, and spun about to face source of the strange emanations: the shrine archway. Sakura recovered enough of herself to move to join them, as well, even though her movements were much more hesitant than theirs. Her eyes were still locked within their gaze of terror, though, and for good reason. What she felt growing within the air around them was all too familiar to her. It had the same feel of the terrifying strength and uninviting emptiness that she had sensed from the darkness that very morning, back when she had been taken into that dream once again. The sense of dread, and the lure of bliss and pleasure; it was all there within the vacancy that was closing in around them.

The closer that it got, the more that they could tell that it was not of this earth, but that it had come from somewhere far away, much like Richard had told them. It was a power that was surely from a place well beyond their understanding. Soon enough, even those that had not been associated with the dreams could also feel the vacant lures and blissful promises that it brought along with it, and then they too were also able to share in Sakura's fears.

And when she witnessed the next occurrence, Sakura quickly back-stepped away from the shrine archway, nearly tripping over herself in the process. It was all she could do not to just blindly run away from her fear.

A swirling mass of pure black faded into view from within the archway before them, blocking away all of the light of the evening sun that was shining from behind it. The black mass continued to grow, increasing in size and darkened intensity until the very archway itself defined its dimensions. It eventually became the very antithesis of its original purpose as a holy gateway, and instead had become the path to Hell itself.

From behind her, Sakura felt an ancient power shudder horrendously. The life essence of the large cherry tree, the Tsukimine Shrine's patron deity, had begun to quiver in fear alongside her.

When the presence of a vacant power had finally approached to the point that they thought they should be able to literally see it, a figure emerged from the swirling darkness that was held within the confines of the shrine's archway. It was tall, perhaps as tall as the six-foot-two Touya, and humanoid in shape. Practically all of its features were hidden away by a light-absorbing black cloak, save for a pair of black-leather gloved hands.

At first, they all immediately had flashbacks of the Richard Quillen person that they had just sealed away, but right away everyone knew that this was not the same person. Even the two humans without magical ability could readily tell that this cloaked person before them was someone that they had never met before. In fact, the presence that was lurking about the person made them all wish that they would have _never_ met.

As that person crossed through through the vortex's boundary, the blackness within the archway snapped shut with an audible snap. It took with it the incessant quaking of the ground beneath their feet, and allowed the world to once again bathe within the warmth of the evening sun. Yet even though the sunlight now had an easy reach to the dark figure's features, it still failed to illuminate any part of their cloak. It was not so much that the light was being blocked or reflected away, as if by some source of magic, but more like it was being completely negated. The entire air about this newcomer seemed to be turning into a literal nothingness.

"'_To release one begins the release of them all..._'," Eriol intoned darkly, staring at the cloaked figure with a gaze mixed with apprehension and determination, "The meanings within the prophecy have been met, just as I expected them to be. The elements have all been released, and with their departure has come the release of their overlord. You are the dark one who would manipulate life from the shadows, are you not? What is your purpose!?"

An ancient and weathered male voice, ignorant of Eriol's question, spoke to them, "It wasn't very nice of you to go and take away my pets like that. Now I have to do all the work for myself."

"Answer his question! What do you want!?" Reios asked forcefully.

The old voice returned, "Lad, that should be fairly obvious. Or at least, it should be to this young lass."

The gloved hand that he had lifted up to point at Sakura sent a stiff chill shooting down her spine, causing her to take yet another step backwards. She shook her head in both confusion and fear, "I.. I don't... "

The old man merely chuckled to himself in amusement, "No matter. She can explain it all to you, if she so wishes it, while you watch me do my work. Now then..."

He lifted his hand back up, and continued it onwards until it was pointed directly towards the sky. Immediately they could feel his magical strength begin to rise, and at a frighteningly tremendous rate, yet they could not sense the source of his power, nor to what he was directing it at. Then they noticed that the skies above them were darkening, and it was not because of the coming of nightfall. The evening skies above them were literally turning black, almost as if they were dying off to give way to the vacuum of outer space that laid beyond. The only problem there was that there were no stars appearing through the blackness that was now engulfing their entire world.

And when the skies were finally and completely dominated by the blackness that had been called forth by the old man, was when everything that they had taken for granted was ripped from their grasps. Their spiritual links to the celestial bodies above were cut away as though a knife had sliced into the very connection to those sources, leaving them weak and powerless. Both Eriol and Sakura fell to their knees with the sudden shock of their powers being stripped away, while Yue – with he and Kerberos having transformed back into their true forms during the old man's approach – completely collapsed to the ground. Even Syaoran was adversely affected, which left Tomoyo being required to actively support him in order to keep him standing. Kerberos, however, felt only a slight loss of internal strength, and noted with a glance that Reios had only slightly faltered as well.

"What have you done!?" the beast roared, directing a heated gaze at their black-cloaked opponent.

"I have begun the process of 'absorption'," the old man replied back. His tone was nonchalant, as though his actions should have been predictable. This was not an answer that Kerberos had been expecting, which meant that it was not the one that he had been wanting either, setting the guardian beast's anger to flaring brightly. He was one step away from releasing as strong a fire blast as he could muster, when Reios stepped up slowly beside him, his katana drawn and ready.

"Then I suggest you undo your little process, unless you want see the insides of your body."

The old man cackled loudly before calling back, "My dear boy, now why would I do that? It would put all of my carefully laid – and subsequently delayed – plans to waste. I am afraid that you'll just have to try and do away with me."

It was then that Reios noted that Sakura, let alone anyone else, had failed to step up beside him. He turned back to them, and noted curiously that they were struggling hard just to remain upright and conscious. His concern brought Kerberos turning back around, as well, and when the guardian saw the condition of his mistress, he became increasingly alarmed.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" the guardian asked insistently, rushing over to her and nuzzling at her shoulder to gain her attention. She merely shook her head, and grasped tightly at his thick fur-lined neck to steady herself, rather than choosing to answer directly. If she even could have answered, for she was unable to put up a valid description towards her growing distress.

Eriol mentally shoved away his enforced weariness, and responded in her stead, "It is whatever... 'absorption' this one has begun. And now, I understand where the idea came from, all those years ago, when I put the entire city to sleep while confronting Sakura. The spell above us has blocked away the link that binds us to the magic of the celestial avatars. Whereas my spell had selectively locked out those magicks and souls that I did not want interfering, this new one has indiscriminately severed our ties to _all_ the magic sources above us. Without that sustaining power, our bodies and spirits have become weak. The sun, the moon, and even the stars... they have all been lost to us. I fear it will remain as such until this one brings down his veil of darkness, which is something that I doubt he is willing to do."

Eriol then noted that Kerberos and Reios seemed to be faring far better off than he or the others, and inferred, "However, it would seem that the power of the Earth still flows strongly. The spell seems to only be covering the skies, and not the planet's actual body, which leads me to suspect that to be the target of his 'absorption'. Because of this, both yours and Reios's magical sources still remain partially intact. However... I don't know if that will be enough..."

Neither Kerberos nor Reios were at all comfortable with being left alone in the task of having to deal with this new threat, all things considered. Yet as they looked to each other to gauge the severity of the situation, they questioned themselves: what other choices remained to them? So together, the two remaining powers that were left, those two whom remained to utilize the power of the Light that shined within the very planet itself, turned about to face their final duty. If this "old man" would not relinquish his hold upon the powers of the night sky, then they would instead have to find some way to _break_ that hold.

In response to their impending assault, the old man merely cackled gleefully again.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*= =*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

_End, Chapter 7_

_

* * *

  
_

"_Light in the darkness, the preventers of destruction_

_To release one begins the release of them all_

_You cannot defend her, kneel down and surrender_

_Your end is at hand"_


	67. Candles in the Dark

**Chapter 8 – Sacrifice  


* * *

**

_8-1a: Candles in the Dark  
_

Neither Kerberos nor Reios were at all comfortable with being left alone in the task of having to deal with this new threat, all things considered. Yet as they looked to each other to gauge the severity of the situation, they questioned themselves: what other choices remained to them? So together, the two remaining powers that were left, those two whom remained to utilize the power of the Light that shined within the very planet itself, turned about to face their final duty. If this "old man" would not relinquish his hold upon the powers of the night sky, then they would instead have to find some way to _break_ that hold.

It was easy to tell that the two were preparing to attack, and this set the old man to into a loud, almost excessive fit of cackling. Though, by the way he was going on about it, it was difficult to tell whether he was laughing out of amusement, or from sheer insanity.

When the old man was in control of himself once more, he sent a mocking remark to them, "Yes, do your best to defeat me. _Surely_ you still have a chance, right? Humph! Think it through, boy! What hope do you really have, with the majority of your powers sealed away from you?"

Reios growled menacingly in return, "I don't care if I have to come after you with a broomstick!"

He then charged without notice, his katana pulling back behind him as he shot through the distance that was separating himself from his target. The edge of his sword reached for the ground, sending sparks flying in all directions as he maneuvered for an uppercut strike. He brought his sword forward forcefully against the ground, with the intention of using that downward friction in order to increase the power of his swing.

Five steps before he would have reached and disemboweled the old man, he was viciously thrown right back to where he had started by an unseen blast of energy. Grunting against the pain of a rough-and-tumble landing, he pushed himself up off of his back with his elbows and into a sitting position, and glared at the cloaked figure with a face distorted in pain. The old man did not respond in kind, and merely lowered his hand from whatever attack it was that he had just unleashed.

Eriol was immediately beside the fallen Reios, "Don't be so reckless! We cannot hope to challenge him with our powers sealed away as they are."

Reios grunted again with the effort of rolling over to push himself to his knees, looked up at the dark-haired sorcerer, and uttered roughly, "If you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it!"

Eriol stood himself back up and looked off towards the blackened skies above them, notably silent against the request. Reios also took to his feet, minding a reawakened pain in his left foot, and glanced about at those that were with him: Sakura, who was caught between a glare of determination to see this battle through, and a streak of fear that was washing through her at the apparent inevitability of their demise, not to mention her current lack of ability to deal with the issue; Tomoyo, who stood supportively beneath Syaoran's arm as the man did his best to ensure her protection, though they both had the look that said they knew it wouldn't end well; Yue, who seemed to be the worst hit by the spell of darkness, his body resting unconsciously against the cherry tree with Touya watching over him; Eriol, who had maintained a sense of calm and collected thought all throughout this event, although it was all too easily readable on his face that he was completely unsure of what their next task needed to be.

The only face that he did not need to read through was Kerberos's.

The beast was already crouched down, readying himself to pounce at the old man should even the slightest opportunity or opening arise. Kerberos seemed to be having the same intentions as Reios, although Reios could only hope to whatever god or power that was still listening that such intentions would be enough. Sticking the point of his katana into a crevice in the cement ground, he slipped the silver key from his neck and released its power to change it into the darkened silver sword that he had grown so familiar with. Picking up the katana once again, he wielded both swords just as he had done against the fire spirit, and nodded to Kerberos with a strong resolution at the same time that Kerberos nodded to him.

Reios opened up with a grim smile, "Kill or be killed. Simple enough, right?"

The guardian seemed to grin slightly, as well, "My kind of choice."

The world around them went deathly silent, waiting in anticipation for the two committed to their fight to choose their time to strike. They waited for their moment, patient yet tense, seeking an opening in whatever defenses the old man probably had lying in wait for them. His footing, his stance; the air around him, the environment beyond; breathing, twitching, any slight of movement, or even no movement at all – they watched through it all to wait for their chance.

A pink petal crossed into that dire scene, momentarily blocking away from Reios's view some minuscule parts of the cloaked form that stood before him.

The petal landed gently upon the ground at the same moment that he left it.

This time, Reios crossed the distance between them before the old man even knew he was coming, dodging and slicing his way through each invisible wave of magic that the cloaked figure had thought to put into play. He scowled audibly at the berserker swordsman and leapt well away from his opponent's offensive, raising his arms up to bring to bear a more powerful attack.

A stream of fire erupted from out of nowhere, engulfing the entirety of the old man's backside. Yet when the flames eventually receded away, he was found to be completely uninjured. The old man turned about to glare through the darkness of his cowl towards the interfering guardian's attack, but the diversion proved just enough for Reios to close in for another swipe, forcing the old man to dodge away from a rather close decapitation attempt.

As soon as Reios had recovered from his failed swing, he found himself already on the defensive as a pair of black 'tendrils', made up of something almost a mist-like substance, rose up from the ground before his black-clothed target and began to assault him as though they were themselves a pair of swords. He could see the old man's arms twitching for each swing and stab that the tendrils took at him. He deftly deflected and countered each strike that was taken, and even managed to sever one of those tendrils clean in half. He laughed inwardly at the old man's lack of skill, though he just as quickly found himself being knocked back several meters as three more mist-swords rose up from the ground to combine together and overwhelm him.

Pleased with his success, the old man failed to notice the rush of flapping wings from above. He turned about at the last second only to be knocked to the ground by a flying tackle from Kerberos. The guardian raised one of his paws up to slice the old man's face right out of his cowl, and swung at empty air as he found himself being sent flying high into the air from a blast of dark energy. Kerberos managed to make a mid-air recovery, at least, but the blow to his underside still managed to leave him considerably winded and completely off-balance.

"Fools..." the old voice uttered grimly, before extending both of his arms out to point towards both Reios and Kerberos. From his outstretched hands there formed a pair of dark spheres comprised of the same darkness-filled mist that those sword-like tendrils had been made up of, both of which eventually shot away at a frightening speed towards their targets. Reios just barely managed to deflect his portion of the attack with a slice of his magic sword, cutting straight through the attack and coming out of it unscathed. Kerberos was not so fortunate, however, as he was still recovering from the previous blow that he had taken. The winged lion was struck directly on the head by the ball of dark mist, and was sent plummeting to the ground below with a painfully loud thump.

Sakura, as well as those that were with her, looked on fearfully to where Kerberos had fallen. His several-dozen-meter drop had looked _and_ sounded to be near-fatal, leaving none of them with the hope of him getting up again. Yet the guardian proved to be more of a challenge than that, despite his odds, and still managed to struggle back to his feet. There was a noticeable injury to his left hind leg, but at least he was still alive and breathing.

Reios, on the other hand, was not at all pleased with the outcome of that attack, despite his equal relief that Kerberos was still moving. He sheathed and Little'd his katana, then charged back after the old man with both of his hands held tight to his dark sword. Multitudes of sword-like mist tendrils rose up in his path to greet him, yet he swept through them all as though they were crops of wheat swaying in the fields. The fury of the charge left the cloaked man stunned enough to be susceptible to a direct attack, and Reios wasted none of the advantage that he had gained.

When Reios pulled back from the fight to recover himself and analyze the damage that he had inflicted, he found that what had undeniably been a sure-fire disemboweling swing had only caused a superficial wound to the old man's chest. It was a feat that would have required an ungodly agility to surpass the limitations of what must have been a five hundred year old body, judging by the sound of his voice. In fact, everything that the old man had so far done was all in opposition to what an extremely old person should have been physically able to accomplish. Reios's attack had been far too close-in for him to escape unscathed, otherwise, and yet the old man remained standing and was relatively untouched. What little of the cut that had actually connected was restricted to the dark cloak that his opponent wore.

"You insolent little pest..." the old man muttered fiercely, fingering the open cut in the fabric. Despite having thwarted Reios's attempt, he was nonetheless seemingly displeased with the apparent insult, "Away with you!"

His yelling was accompanied by both of his arms shooting skyward, an action that summoned up a trio of black "holes" in the air around him. From within them, a powerful and unnatural windstorm rose up, and from there the three holes in space began to dance about unpredictably as they moved to reposition themselves. The aims of those holes soon redirected their winds straight at Reios, catching him up off of his feet and buffeting him around in mid-air like a soccer ball before knocking him away as though he were nothing more than an unwanted rag doll.

The next thing that he was aware of was of Syaoran kneeling beside him, trying to checking for injuries. For the most part, what Reios looked like by now was how he felt: battered to a pulp. He could feel himself teetering precariously upon the edge between the living and unconscious worlds. Yet despite his potential injuries and overwhelming weariness, he pushed himself back to his feet again, drawing upon some hidden reserve of strength that he was very much surprised he still had.

The old man before them merely laughed at Reios's tenacity, "Yes, throw yourselves at me as many times as you wish! As long as the darkness of absorption remains, your continued attacks will meet with a similar fate. And I will continue to grow stronger while they entertain me!"

Sakura's head snapped up at those words, "Darkness? Dark... wait, that's it! We have to dispel that darkness with its opposing attribute!"

Eriol was already beating himself mentally for not having thought of it sooner, "Of course! It was Clow's favorite test, why didn't I think of that? Reios, you–!"

But Reios was already up and facing the sorcerous old man, his sword in one hand and a card in the other. The cloaked old man crossed his arms, seemingly interested enough to wonder at what else the insolent brat could possibly have planned. They were both well aware that as long as Reios was on his own, now that Kerberos had been put to the sidelines, there was no chance of winning.

So he emphasized that fact, "And what do you think you could possibly do to me, now, that you haven't already tried? Hmm?"

Reios held up his card and readied it for use, incidentally revealing it to those behind him in the process: the Fly. He shaped a mocking grin, and replied to the old man, "Who said that I was going to deal with you anymore?"

"Don't toy with me, child," was the returned warning, except that it went completely unheeded. The old man was even more greatly annoyed by this ignorance than from being toyed with, too, which gave Reios a profound sense of pleasure.

"I told you, I'm done with you," Reios shot back calmly, "I'm taking out your advantage, instead."

He then denied his opponent any further attention as he activated his card, "Fly!"

A pair of angelic wings formed upon his back, their feathers colored over with a light golden hue. They flapped but once to test the air around them, and then lifted him clear of the ground as he sped fast straight into the darkened skies above them.

The cloaked figure realized Reios's intentions just as those majestic golden wings took him away from the earth, and reacted by sending a veritable army of his mist-made swords after him. They sped away from the ground, trailing after the seraphic warrior with as much speed as gravity would allow, but in the end they were no match for the built-up velocity that Reios had already attained. The old man saw this immediately, and weaved his hands through the air as he summoned forth a more appropriate form of attack.

Or at least, he would have summoned his next attack, if not for the massive weight of a certain winged lion knocking him down with an airborne assault of claws and muscle. Kerberos put everything he had into taking down the old man, and ignored his left hind leg in order to keep his entire weight pressed down onto his opponent's cloaked backside. Yet pinning him down merely served to deter the old man for only a brief period of time, before he blindly shot Kerberos away again while simultaneously enacting his next attack.

But thanks to Kerberos's well-timed distraction, Reios was able to sense the oncoming threat before it had even begun, and could almost see the vacant power forming together right in his vertical path. He banked hard to the left as a bubble of black energy exploded into view exactly where he had been going, eating away at every little bit of substance that had previously been in that particular region of the sky. Several more "bubbles" appeared in his path as he went, though these were just as easily avoided, now that he was aware of them. They all proved to be little more than a diversion as he shot ever upwards towards his ultimate goal.

From down below, his weaving and dodging looked much like the aerial dance of a giant bird, but this did not distract Sakura from seeing the old man's attacks for what they really were. They were void bubbles, as Kero had once termed them, and they had been the primary method of attack that her then-rogue Hope card had used when she had been trying to seal it away those few years ago at the amusement park. She finally understood, now, what it was that she had been feeling from her dreams. She knew, at last, what the power of this foe truly was: the power to absorb everything into nothingness.

Reios found his goal just moments after Sakura's realization, and could visually tell that he was approaching the boundary of the magical field of darkness that was encompassing the city. By now, he had completely outmaneuvered the sorcerer's attempted assaults, and he dared not stop the race now for fear that one of them might still appear to entrap him. Instead, he bolted straight up and into the black field's apex, readying and ultimately throwing another of his cards ahead of himself and up towards the boundary of that field. His card made contact with that field, spun about as Reios shot towards it, and glowed brightly at the instant that his sword's crystalline pommel crashed against it.

The command was given: "Light!"

From the view on the ground, it was the breaking of a second dawn that day. Even though it was already getting into the early evening, the Light card shone with as much power as would have the sun on a clear summer day. At its point-blank distance to the magic barrier, its light easily penetrated through the thick and encompassing darkness, breaking it apart to the point that the old man could do nothing to control its decay. Instead, he was left standing there fuming as streaks of true evening sunlight broke through more and more holes within the barrier, until all the earth was lit up once again by the sun's warming rays.

With the return of the warmth of light and pale blue of the evening sky, so too came the restoration of their magical abilities. Eriol immediately responded by raising his hand and firing a pulsing red missile of energy directly at the sorcerer, which was followed moments later by a pair of silver arrows as an unsteady, Touya-supported Yue retaliated viciously against his forced loss of consciousness. Eriol's attack served to sufficiently distract the old man from the second attack, and allowed one of Yue's arrows to pierce clean through his left shoulder. The loud groan of pain that soon after flew out from his darkened and impenetrable cowl was very pleasing to Yue's ears.

Reios alighted himself behind Sakura and Eriol, and found the two of them at the ready with a card and a crimson-glowing hand, respectively. He likewise readied a card for himself, but other than that could only stand in waiting with his companion, watching for the next move that their foe would soon make.

His move was made when he raised up his uninjured arm, and grasped his hand tightly to the glowing arrow that had impaled itself into his shoulder. With an increase in physical strength that was noticeable to all, he ripped the arrow straight back out the way it had gone in, and without so much as a grunt or any kind of visible reaction to the pain. He glared at the shaft for a single moment, before tossing it aside as one would have a piece of trash. The arrow vaporized away at the very moment that it struck against the ground.

"I warned you against struggling," he began coolly, "I told you that you stood no chance without your powers to aid you, and your pathetic attempt at resistance just now has only proven me all the more right. Even at your full strength, you would be of no consequence to me, as mine is the greater power. Indeed, it is vastly unparalleled when compared to your _limited_ magicks. And it has been made to be so for this sole reason: that I may now be allowed to attain my one true dream!"


	68. Ambitions

_8-1b: Ambitions_

"I warned you against struggling," he began coolly, "I told you that you stood no chance without your powers to aid you, and your pathetic attempt at resistance just now has only proven me all the more right. Even at your full strength, you would be of no consequence to me, as mine is the greater power. Indeed, it is vastly unparalleled when compared to your _limited_ magicks. And it has been made to be so for this sole reason: that I may now be allowed to attain my one true dream!"

Syaoran interrupted him right there, "Yeah, okay, so now we have our powers back. Quit acting all high and mighty, and just give up already. You tried it once. It's not going to work again."

"Acting?" he scoffed, and then crossed his arms just to emphasize that he was not nearly as injured as they thought he had been, "I dare not think that I am acting, for I am truly as high and mighty as you claim me to say. And I will become more powerful still once the process of absorption has been completed."

Tired as he was of beating around the bush, Reios went right to the point, "What the hell is this absorption you keep talking about?"

"Absorption is, by definition, simply what it is. But to allow your simple-minded thoughts to comprehend, I shall summarize: in context, I will absorb all of the world's energy into myself, and create life anew. It is something of which I have dreamt of for the longest time. A dream that was denied to me by that joke of a magician, Clow Reed."

The supposed summary of the old man's grand plan flew right over their heads, along with his sudden mention of the infamous Clow Reed. Syaoran, in particular, did not buy it, "What is... is that even possible!?"

The old man splayed his arms wide out as if for a grand display, "With the power that I hold, the power to undo everything, it will be. Then, once all is undone, I shall recreate it all as I see fit, utilizing the energy provided to me by the very core of the Earth itself."

"Undo?" Sakura muttered. That was all she had needed to confirm it, "You want to erase everything? Your power... it's the power of nothingness, isn't it?"

The old man nodded approvingly to her, "To be more precise, my dear, I am a sorcerer under the Power of the Void. I see that you've been studying well."

Another thought came to Sakura's mind, "If you think you have so much power, then why did you make those spirits do all those awful things? Why did you force them to fight against their will!?"

"To aid in the process of natural selection."

The simply-put method that this sorcerer had used to voice his answer was greatly disturbing to them all, a feeling that was reinforced by his volunteered explanation, "And by natural selection, I refer to every life that inhabits this entire planet. Not just animals, but us humans as well. My very purpose was to root out the strong from the weak, so that they could later be properly 'processed'. The spiritual essences of the weak and easily terminated will be amassed to form the lifeblood of a new entity, while those with a strong enough will to initially survive this process would later serve as the body and soul. And who better to enact this selection other than the forces of nature itself?"

Reios slammed the tip of his magicked sword into the ground, "There's nothing natural about the wanton destruction and carnage that your 'befriended' spirits would have caused! And what the hell do you mean by a new entity? What does destroying the entire world have to do with that!?"

"I seek perfection, as does any human. As does any life form, for that matter," the old man replied, and far too calmly for Reios's liking, "By absorbing the planet's power into myself, I will be granted the ability to craft the next world into whatever shape or form that I please. By absorbing all of that which exists into a singular being, I can create the perfect existence. In all of this, I seek an existence of immortality for all of us. For all of humanity! You would all become like gods!"

"And you intend to use the power of the Void to wipe everything clean and start our existence over from scratch?"

Eriol's sudden and, more to the point, correct query surprised the dark sorcerer, though only slightly, "Ah, well observed of you, Clow. I am glad to see that more than just one of you has been paying attention. It will make things far more easier for me in the long run."

"Then you should already be aware," Eriol countered, "that your powers will fail you. Making use of the Power of the Void completely negates its very definition. By utilizing it – by giving a non-existent power a purpose – it ceases to be the Power of the Void and becomes merely another form of devouring darkness. It is a power that this world has no more need of, for it has such powers in great enough quantity as it is."

"Ah, yes, this is true," the old man said mockingly, finally moving from his spot to pace over to the side, "But then, none of those powers can come anywhere near to the the scale that is required to devour an entire planet, now can they? It does not really matter to me what the Void becomes in the end, so long as it erases the physical restraints of this world and provides the boundless energies of its soul unto me."

"You've lost your mind!" Syaoran shouted, "Such a power would only devour you in the end, as well! Not only that, but you claim to call yourself a human, and yet you seek the destruction of humanity with no more concern than would a rabid animal!"

"Your comparison is painful," the old man muttered dryly, "and also inaccurate. As I have said, I only wish to unify all of humanity into a singular, perfected being. A being that will transcend mortality to become unto a god. A power that I shall control. Besides, one must be of a different mind to attain such lofty goals, must they not?"

The cloaked man's counter-argument against Syaoran's comparison was the one point of the entire conversation that had not been sitting well with Sakura. And now that the true meaning of it was out in the open, she chose to make her stand. Her gaze shot straight into the sorcerer's darkened cowl as he turned back from his pacing to face them, unknowingly locking the old man into an unsettling staring contest.

"You're wrong," she opened, "It's not your place to decide whether one lives or one dies. No one has that right. If there's one thing that I have learned from dealing with magic, it's that we all have to live our days to the fullest. We all have to face each day to our best capabilities, because nothing can bring that day back once it's been lost. That means everyone, each and every, _individual_ person. What you have planned for our future is an all out affront to the very meaning of living!"

Sakura's closing argument was brought forth in as strong a voice as she could muster, "Without the uniqueness of each and every life that exists around us, what else is there to the purpose of existence!?"

The old man nodded slowly, as if he were actually considering her words. He held his tongue for a long moment, then replied, "What else is there? Why, only the one thing that every single man has ever wished for: the attainability of a higher power. Something far greater, and far more valuable, than that of any one singular life. This is what every man's heart has sought for, ever since the beginning of time and perhaps even before then, and I fully intend to provide."

"What every man has sought for?" Reios repeated questioningly, disbelief marking his features and voice, "What, did you go around and ask every single person on this entire planet?"

"You're a fool if you think you know of the human heart," Eriol added, "Anyone who thinks that they know the entirety of the human heart is an absolute fool. Not even Clow Reed, in his position as the greatest sorcerer known to mankind, sought to fully understand human emotion. Granted that he still sought to predict it, but he was not so conceited to think that he would _ever_ be able to fully and accurately map it. So do you now claim to have completed such a map? Can you speak with a truthful certainty of man's real desires?"

Reios wrenched his dark sword from the ground that he had slammed it into, and held it up above him in an offensive stance, "Even if he could, I don't think I would be able to let him finish the explanation."

"You won't be able to do anything at all, lad! Your powers are lost to you, and physical might alone cannot hope to sunder my being. Clow Reed, in his wonderful and grand scheme, failed to stop me. So, too, shall you fail!"

"What are you..." Reios started, though his question faltered off as he quickly took to favoring a defensive stance against the sorcerer ominously raising both of his arms towards the sky. His clenched fists soon exploded open, with his gloved fingers pointing out as wide as they could in all directions, and from those hands came a new wave of dark energy. In that same instant, the skies once again became overcast with the pitch black darkness of the barrier that had previously blocked away their powers. Its full force had been returned to the world as if it had never even been gone.

Those with connections to the celestial powers above were given no time to wonder at how the old sorcerer could so quickly reestablish his 'absorption' barrier, as they immediately felt the severing of their magic powers and were forced to suffer the consequences. But this time, there was a difference. This time, the very ground below them was also completely consumed by the darkness of the barrier, shutting away the power of the Earth along with the remnants of Light that were suffused within it. In this way, Reios found his head spinning wildly as his powers were ripped violently away from him. His legs chose to buckle under him, and he found himself quickly kneeling upon the ground in a disoriented stupor.

Having already experienced the disorienting feeling of separation once already, Sakura and Eriol managed to keep their footing and were immediately beside him. Together, they helped him back to his feet, then pulled him back to where Syaoran was still holding his defensive line to protect Tomoyo and her renewed chronicling efforts.

Sakura looked from one face to another to see the hopelessness of the situation that they were in, and to Yue whom was once again lying unconscious and under the care of her elder brother. What was more, with the connection to the Earth now having been cut away as well, Kerberos was also in a state similar to his guardian brother, and now laid unconscious over where he had fallen to after being shot away twice.

The suffering and depression that her friends were enduring was too much for her to have to witness. That they were now supposedly powerless against such onslaughts only made it all the more unbearable. She turned back to the sorcerer with pleading eyes, crying out forcefully, "Why are you doing this!?"

But as much as she wanted a plausible answer, and as much as she knew she would not get one that would matter to her, the sorcerer remained stubbornly quiet. He chose instead to just stare at her through the darkness of his cowl, as motionless as he was silent. After a time, his body began to float up into the air, and he raised his arms arms high above himself as if in supplication to some higher power. At the same time, a massive amount of mist tendrils rose up from the ground to begin circling themselves about him, several dozen at the least. How she was able to see their blackened forms, against the very blackness of the barrier-formed world around them, was beyond reasoning.

When the sorcerer finally spoke again, it was not in reply to Sakura's desperate question, "I shall prove to you all that any form of resistance against the course of our future is futile. This I shall demonstrate by cleansing the weakest to show that sympathy shall fall away, and then the strongest to show that this infinite power of mine cannot be sundered. From there, you shall see for yourselves that neither frailty nor strength can change what is destined."

"Damn you!" came an enraged cry, with Syaoran charging ahead at full speed before anyone could stop him.

"Syaoran, wait!" Sakura cried, but by then he had already leapt into the air, his leg extended out to deal a crushing blow to the sorcerer's skull. Instead, he only received a crushing blow to his own pride as an unseen blast of energy swatted him away most effortlessly. Syaoran, stunned as he was, was unable to recover from the counterattack, and tumbled none too gently all the way to Sakura's feet.

As Syaoran struggled his way into a sitting position, the sorcerer spoke at them with a mocking stance of poise and civility, "Now, then. _If_ there are no further interruptions, I would like to proceed."


	69. A Dying Wish

_8-1c: A Dying Wish_

"Damn you!" came an enraged cry, with Syaoran charging ahead at full speed before anyone could stop him.

"Syaoran, wait!" Sakura cried, but by then he had already leapt into the air, his leg extended out to deal a crushing blow to the sorcerer's skull. Instead, he only received a crushing blow to his own pride as an unseen blast of energy swatted him away most effortlessly. Syaoran, stunned as he was, was unable to recover from the counterattack, and tumbled none too gently all the way to Sakura's feet.

As Syaoran struggled his way into a sitting position, the sorcerer spoke at them with a mocking stance of poise and civility, "Now, then. _If_ there are no further interruptions, I would like to proceed."

The old man actually scanned around to ensure that there would be no more outbursts, and then added, "First, I shall purge you of weakness, to show that sympathy shall not save you."

A gloved hand rose away slightly from the man's robes along with those words, before it pulled his arm fully above him in a throwing gesture. At that beckoning motion, a plethora of mist-formed swords rose up out of the ground around the disabled group and began to join together into a mesh-like wall, creating something like a cage that they quickly found themselves trapped within. A few of those mist-swords then weaved their way free of the cage's walls and began to assault the group, swinging madly at each of them with their edged tips.

Syaoran dove straight in against the first one that neared him, and wrestled it down to the ground with a surprising ease. Though it continued to struggle against him, and even managed to mark his left arm red with a glancing blow, he held his ground and managed to keep that one attacker at bay. Yet this still left everyone else to fend for themselves, and all he could do was watch on helplessly as he struggled with his own problems.

Sakura's agility proved too much for the pair of swords that had chosen to attack her, as she rolled and tumbled out of the way as though the world around her were one giant gymnastics mat. To her side, she saw Eriol merely stepping away from each attack that he encountered, and wondered silently at how he managed to do it so easily. Still, the ease with which they were able to defend themselves was lending very little to actually allowing them to escape this predicament, which had her slightly worried. How were they supposed to deal with this without their magic to aid them?

Another of her mid-air somersaults removed Eriol from her view, and placed Reios within her line of sight instead. This was when she became truly worried.

His motions were jerky and panicked, with his katana – their only remaining line of defense against the sorcerer, she realized – swinging about wildly as though he were completely unsure of what he was doing. He swung hard at an incoming mist-sword, but at the last second pulled away and just barely parried its assault. He raised up at a mist-sword coming in from behind, but instead chose to dodge aside as though he were afraid of the consequences of his cut. But that did not sound right. Him, afraid?

Upon recovering from his evasions, he turned enough towards Sakura that she was able to catch a glimpse of his eyes. They were darting about madly, and uncertainty was marring his every feature. It was as if he had totally lost control of his mind. She called out his name questioningly, but only received back a passing glance that held a mix of fear, confusion, and most worrisome of all, suspicion.

Any further attempts at reasoning it out were thwarted when she suddenly found herself lying down face first on the black ground beneath her, completely winded yet fully aware of the fact that that she had been tripped from her feet being bound together. She struggled hard to get her breath back, all while fighting and kicking viciously against the mist that had wrapped itself about her ankles. She could plainly see from the similar predicament that the others were now in, though, that she was not likely to get out of this one any time soon. They, too, were struggling against the same binds as her own, and were not having any more luck than she was.

A sudden commotion from above brought Sakura's attention away from her own predicament and back to the sorcerer that was still floating above them. An accented cry from him saw to another thick stream of black mist flying out of his hands, and it was aiming straight towards them. Considering that she could not have possibly dodged away from it in time, even if she had had the ability to do so, she instead curled up into a ball in an attempt to defend herself as best as she could. A few gasps of air followed as everyone else made to mimic her movements.

And when she heard that fearful shriek, her heart nearly stopped beating.

She snapped her head back skyward, and while there was no longer any direct threat from the sorcerer himself, she now found something infinitely worse to be taking place. Whatever the sorcerer had sent at them had snatched Tomoyo right out from within their group, and now had her hanging by her arms only a few meters away from him. The intolerable sight of her best friend having been captured renewed her strength, and allowed Sakura one final effort to free herself.

Her increased output of physical effort, combined with the grunts and cries from above as Tomoyo also tried to free herself, quickly drained Sakura's energy yet again. Anxiety and panic were both now overtaking her very being. She scanned about quickly for options, searching for anything that could give give her the advantage that she so desperately needed, but everyone else was still tied down. They were all just as helpless as she was.

But there was still one last ray of hope: Reios was still keeping a white-knuckled hold on his katana. Despite it being a non-magical artifact, it had still proven effective against the mist-swords that had attacked him during their initial encounter with this old sorcerer. She stopped her own struggling, and chose to throw her voice at him instead, "Reios, do something! Help her!"

And yet he failed to hear her. He was not even bothering to struggle against his own mist-bound feet anymore. If anything, he only continued to stare straight ahead, unaware of anything that was happening around him. He would have been practically catatonic, if not for the visible trembling of his body caused by each of Tomoyo's screams and grunts of effort. Sakura could only wonder at just what the heck was he doing, simply sitting there as he was and staring out into–

No. He was not just sitting there. He was being held down, too, but by something far stronger than the physical bonds that were holding Sakura herself down. She could see them, now, circling about him ceaselessly. Two of those dark-mist tendrils were orbiting his still frame without pause, but they were doing nothing to him other than just that. Wait, no. That was wrong, too. They were not just circling him. There was something more...

Sakura squinted her eyes to concentrate harder on the spectacle that she was witnessing, until she was able to see through what was a very apparent lie. Even without her magic to aid her, she could see it clearly now. Those were not just mere mist-swords that were with him, but were rather placeholders for another form of magic. Illusion magic, of specters formed up in the shape of humans. Specters that looked... just like Syaoran and herself!?

With the illusions pierced, Sakura now had a full understanding of it all. It was the same as when they had visited the ocean beach. Back when they had been attacked by the water spirit, they had all been assaulted by illusions and dreams that had been meant to subvert them from within, with Reios having taken on the worst of the trauma. These mist-formed specters must have been reenacting that same scenario, as they circled about their target menacingly, with their sneers and unheard words playing Reios right into the sorcerer's hands. He was completely lost within their lies.

But she could not afford for him to succumb to the fears of his past, and so shouted to him again, "Reios, it's not real! You have to fight it! Please!"

Her plea for aid went as unanswered as before, and caused her last light of hope to die off along with the fading of her words. One of the specters even turned to look at her with one of its wild and overjoyed sneers. In response, she futilely went back to kicking furiously at the bonds around her feet, before giving up again and risking a glance up to where Tomoyo was still hanging. Her friend had also given up all thoughts of struggle, and was now just hanging there defenseless. It was just not right.

"Leave her alone!" Sakura yelled desperately, "Stop it!"

The sorcerer intoned his next words in a flat and evangelical voice, "Her time has come to prove her strength, or to validate her weakness. To survive the calling of a pure death, or to embrace the future of man... _What say you!?_"

The final question was directed sharply at Tomoyo, and was shouted far louder than it needed to be. Yet in her fear and uncertainty, she failed to respond with anything other than a renewed effort to be released from her captivity. Sakura, meanwhile, was searching intently within herself, trying to think of anything that she could use to her advantage to put an end to all of this. Any form of power, any minute trace of magic left within either herself or her friends. She even would have gladly drawn upon her very own life force, if she could have, just to release one more card. She used all of the willpower that she could muster to try and make that very idea happen, to try and create something out of nothing, and yet her greatest efforts determined that her cards would stay their place, as motionless as ever.

Her next glance upwards allowed her to sight something that she knew would haunt her for the rest of her life. A new plume of mist had begun to swirl about before the old sorcerer, acting as an unconnected bridge that was passing between Tomoyo and himself. It continued to take shape even as more clouds of darkness swirled about it, until eventually Sakura was able to recognize it for what it was. The oversized mist-sword was already redirecting its aim, with the tip of its blade soon hidden away by the skirting of Tomoyo's dress. Sakura knew what was coming, and an overwhelming grief took control of her mind, because she knew that there was nothing that she could do.

"A siphon spell!?" Eriol shouted out sharply, slightly surprising Sakura in the process, "You fool! What are you doing!?"

The sorcerer completely ignored Eriol's complaints, and nodded to Tomoyo in an almost sagely manner. He quietly uttered a phrase that was still audible to those below, "Very well. Then let thy soul test itself."

He raised his arms, and the mist-sword pulled back in tandem to match his gestured command. Tomoyo's eyes bulged wide, a sudden and all-encompassing hopelessness overtaking her along with the realization of what was to come. She shook her head in denial, yet not once looked away from her captor. She did not want this. Not yet, not now. Her mind begged pleadingly, _Not yet... please... let me go..._, yet her mouth could not find the strength nor courage to voice this thought.

The sorcerer held back for a moment, a painful and everlasting moment...

...and then threw his arms forward.

"Tomoyo!!"

A final scream escaped Tomoyo's lips at the same time that Sakura shouted her name, both cut short when the pointed blade of the mist-sword penetrated straight through Tomoyo's chest with ease to appear on the far side of her body. She convulsed once with the sudden pressure of a foreign object lancing its way through her, then a second time in a vain struggle for life, and then finally fell limp.

Sakura's world froze in place all around her, as her dreams from the last two weeks all came vividly rushing back. All of them crashed together painfully inside of her head to the tune of a gray video camera crashing into the pitch-black ground below her best friend, it having escaped from those now lifeless hands. Today was to be a day for revelations, it seemed, because Sakura now understood what it was that her dreams had been trying to tell her.

...y_ou cannot defend her, kneel down and surrender..._

The little white bird had, once again, been taken away from her.

Another scream, Sakura's scream, shot out vividly into the darkness. As the echoes of absolute despair fell away, so too did her face fall towards the ground, allowing her unstoppable tears, carried along by her choking sobs, an easy drop to freedom.

Those remaining that could bear to do so watched closely while the sorcerer floated his way back to the still-restrained Tomoyo, moving near enough so that he might see through her eyes and into her very soul. What he found within them was a life force that was slowly draining away, unable as it was to combat the darkness that he had forced upon it. Yet it all was as he had expected it to be. Though no one could see it, he smiled in satisfaction, and floated aside so that he might address his audience again.

"A representation of weakness has been purged; your pleas and demands have accomplished nothing. This girl's soul now flees from the mortal coil, and shall one day become a part of the life blood of a new power. Yet while my methods must seem cruel and harsh, I am not all that unkind. Here, avail yourselves of one last farewell. While she still draws breath, at least."

Sakura could not help herself and looked back up towards the nightmare taking place above her, but just as suddenly wished that she had not. Her view was filled with the mist-sword withdrawing from Tomoyo's body, as well as those vines that were binding her hands releasing their hold upon her. Within nothing to hold her aloft, Tomoyo began to free-fall towards the black ground below her, forcing Sakura to instinctively close her eyes against a horror that she dared not face.

A rush of air shot over her, with the light beating of a pair of wings overtaking her sense of hearing. Her eyes were made aware of a flash of silver just as she dared to wedge them open. She forcefully cleared her vision of her tears, and looked up to find Yue pushing with everything he had to remain conscious against his loss of power. He was cradling Tomoyo's body as he made a landing nearby them, although it was all he could do just to lay her gently to the ground before collapsing to the ground himself.

Unaware that the bonds at her feet had at some point loosened themselves, Sakura quickly realized that she was now free. She scrambled out of her prone position and leapt into a dead run just to stumble to a stop right over her best friend. She did a quick search for injuries, or life signs, or just a chance of hope, and yet she found no entry wound, no evidence of bleeding, nor even a tear in the clothing. She did, however, see the stirring of eyelids, and took a thin amount of solace in that Tomoyo was still alive. Bodies surrounded them as those that could do so gathered around the two, but Sakura was oblivious to each and every one of them. All of her effort was now being concentrated into putting up a brave front for her fallen friend.

To Tomoyo, her world was awash in an absolute pain, but not quite in the physical sense. It was as if something far deeper within her were wailing in unspeakable agony against a violation that had been committed against it. Even though she could mostly tell that there was nothing was wrong with her body, she knew that whatever her inner being had suffered would soon be fatal to her. She could literally feel her soul being drained away from herself. She could already feel her own body growing colder with each passing moment. With this in mind, she fought hard to regain her conscious mind, and forced her eyes to open up. She focused her vision intently, praying to anything that would hear her that those emerald eyes would be waiting for her.

She found those eyes almost instantly, and locked onto them as though they were her lifeline to the living world. The first thing she was made aware of was of the wonderful smile that her friend was wearing, even though it was easily betrayed by the fountain of tears that were falling away from those beautiful eyes. Having to see such a heartbreaking sight allowed Tomoyo to verify what she had already known, and she understood that her time was growing unjustly short. In that moment of realization, a desperation unlike no other overtook her. There was one last thing that needed to be done. An all-important and final task that she could no longer afford to leave unfinished. This would be her last chance.

The other half of her wish had yet to be fulfilled.


	70. Admittance

_8-1d: Admittance_

She found those eyes almost instantly, and locked onto them as though they were her lifeline to the living world. The first thing she was made aware of was of the wonderful smile that her friend was wearing, even though it was easily betrayed by the fountain of tears that were falling away from those beautiful eyes. Having to see such a heartbreaking sight allowed Tomoyo to verify what she had already known, and she understood that her time was growing unjustly short. In that moment of realization, a desperation unlike no other overtook her. There was one last thing that needed to be done. An all-important and final task that she could no longer afford to leave unfinished. This would be her last chance.

The other half of her wish had yet to be fulfilled.

Tomoyo searched through her mind for control of her body, and finding it, poured what little strength she had left into moving her right arm. The extreme effort that such an act was requiring of her nearly pulled her back into the eternal darkness that was awaiting her, but she somehow managed to find a way through it. She eventually was able to lift that arm up enough to grasp onto Sakura's sleeve, and she held onto that dress as tightly as she could possibly manage.

Sakura instinctively moved her own hand there to anchor that arm into place. She had to work her voice twice over in order to make an effective sound, but for as uneven as it came out, she eventually got the words through, "Tomoyo, please, don't move. Save your strength. Hang in there, okay?"

That wavering voice, the ever-present and sure-fire confidence within it being ready to shatter at any moment, was heartbreaking. But it had to be done. Her time was short. Another burst of strength brought Tomoyo's arm up to Sakura's shoulder, but it could move no further. She would have to suffice with that.

Tomoyo worked at her own voice, and found it surprisingly easy to manipulate by comparison to how it should have been, "Sakura, I..."

Her voice faltered, and an inescapable fear shot through her in that she might fail in her final task. Sakura hushed her gently, and wiped away the tear that had started its way down Tomoyo's cheek. That singular touch, the warmth and kindness of those fingers upon her face, is what gave Tomoyo the strength for just one last chance.

"Sakura, I-I... lo... love...."

Before she was aware of it, Tomoyo had moved her hand to cup Sakura's face. Sakura's own hand moved to secure it in place, if it would make her friend happy for it to be there. The hand that had dried Tomoyo's tear in turn moved to cradle the paling face that it itself held.

"I love you, too."

The words were out before Sakura had known that they had even existed within her mind, spoken as they were out of an act of desperation to just say _anything_ that would keep Tomoyo happy in her final moments. Their eyes met up again, which was when Sakura took notice of a sparkling brilliance that had lit up from within the deepest depths of Tomoyo's soul. It was this new light within her eyes, combined with the words that she had never before considered for her best friend, that made Sakura finally realize the true meaning of those simple, simple words. The words of emotion as they had come to her, and as she had just now given them. The emotions within those eyes that were now, thanks to Syaoran, all too familiar to her.

Tomoyo _loved_ her.

Their minds met together within the vastness of the surrounding darkness, and there they found their lives to be flashing before them both, unbidden, unhindered. In particular, various words and images from Sakura's past came rushing out from times long lost to them, forcing themselves vividly upon her newest realization.

_There isn't anything more interesting, or cuter, than you, Sakura!_

_I just want to be with you as long as possible._

_It's wonderful how two people can be together for such a long time._

One specific image made itself noticed, of a time when she had just quelled an argument between her father and Tomoyo's mother. They had walked away successful, and in their conversation of the relationship between their two mothers, Tomoyo had let slip her true feelings. Sakura, ever blissfully oblivious, had heeded those words only as a sign of true friendship as she had dashed off ahead of her dearest friend. How could she have been so blind?

_I'm glad to make you happy._

_I want to make these costumes so that you look your cutest, Sakura!_

_Being able to spend time with someone I care about, having her wear cute clothing, and being able to record her on video – this is the epitome of bliss!_

A memory of an arts-and-crafts store, as Eriol left her behind to finalize his purchase. This left Sakura wondering as to where Tomoyo's craft kit was, as she had originally shown an interest in buying one for herself. The conversation that had followed from such a simplistic question now rang clear within her mind:

"_If there is something that the person I like can be happy about, more so than liking me in return, then I want that person to stay happy, the way it was meant to be._"

"_That means you don't care if the person you like likes you back?_"

"_Of course, I would be happy if that person likes me back. But... for me to see the person I like so much staying happy, that gives me the biggest happiness._"

Unknown to Sakura at the time, Tomoyo's eyes had taken on a dreamy visage at Sakura's cheery assurances to such an answer. The same dreamy visage that she was seeing within them now. She wondered how she had never seen it before, but could clearly see it now through the veil of her memories. She had never really known how close to the mark she had been, when she had told Tomoyo that her favorite person was truly happy.

A question came to her mind: just how long had Tomoyo been suffering through these burdens, alone?

_Each day, Sakura, you mature to become prettier, more beautiful, and more dignified._

_Besides... if I'm with you, Sakura, I'm sure everything will be all right._

_No matter who takes your pictures, you end up beautiful, Sakura!_

Another scene within her mind, of a mid-afternoon walk through the forest park after school. Tomoyo had just saved her from an embarrassing moment with Syaoran, and along the way, Sakura had turned the topic back onto Tomoyo.

"_Tomoyo? Thank you._"

Those dark amethyst eyes had turned on her in confusion, prompting her next sentence, "_You always save me in all sorts of ways. I really do thank you. If you're ever in trouble, or if something sad ever happens to you, tell me. If there's something I can do, I'll do anything!_"

Those dream-filled eyes had looked upon her once again, "_Nothing sad will ever happen to me as long as you keep smiling, Sakura. My happiness is for you to stay happy._"

Up until now, the closest Sakura had ever come to realizing it was at that point, and it was also the closest that Tomoyo had ever come to outright admitting herself, yet Sakura had still failed to see the truth. Only now was she realizing these feelings that she was being subjected to. Now, when it was too late.

The thought of being too late caused a sharp pain to slice clean through her heart, and it was a debilitating feeling that was all too familiar too her. This feeling, this emotion, it was the very same as that which she had suffered through those several days after Syaoran had admitted his own feelings for her here, at the very shrine that they now inhabited. It was the very same as when she had forced herself to return those feelings at the hole-marked clock tower, when she had believed his love to be forever lost to the magic of her Hope card's Void.

However, unlike from times before, like when she had once confronted Yukito with her feelings, this time there was no difference in comparison. They mirrored what she felt for Syaoran in every single aspect. Every feeling of warmth and affection, right down to the promise of devotion. All of it was there. And unlike when Syaoran had confessed to her, she was now able to understand these feelings without a second thought. Thanks to her boundless feelings for him, she already knew what it was like to love and be loved.

But was it right to feel this way?

She searched within herself, asked herself those words, and easily found the answer. She knew that she had a place within her heart for everyone and everything, even for those that showed her malice or deceit. It had been as such when she had first met Syaoran. They had worked through their mistrust and mutual distaste for each other to eventually form a strong friendship with one another, and finally they had even fallen in love. They had each fought through their own hells to admit that to each other, and were now well on their way towards a bright and wonderful future together.

And now here was Tomoyo, fighting through her own hell to come to the same comparative point in life. She was fighting against death itself to admit that she had the same sense of love towards Sakura that Syaoran had ever had. Yet even though Sakura understood her emotions clearly, a strong uncertainty still blurred her thoughts, and so Sakura again questioned herself if it was right for this to be. She already had Syaoran, and unquestionably loved him more than anything. Come what may, she knew that such feelings would quite certainly never change. So then, how was it that these new feelings were able to come about? How were they even possible?

But then, she also already knew the answer to those questions, as well.

None of it mattered because, in the end, it _felt_ right. It did not have to matter about what other people thought, or even what she thought of herself. It did not even have to make sense, as long as it felt right to _her_. And for every single thing that Tomoyo had ever done for her, for as much as Tomoyo had given of herself already, it only made these answers all the more true. Tomoyo was just as equally deserving of these feelings as Syaoran had ever been.

_If you need me, I'll be there for you. Just like you've always been there for me. _

Except that having always been there for Tomoyo would not be enough, this time. This knowledge made her next realization all the more painful for her.

She loved Tomoyo, too.

That same sparkling brilliance that Sakura was watching then emerged from deep within her own heart, and lit up her eyes with a renewed essence of life. This was the one moment that Tomoyo had so patiently waited on for all of her short life. Without so much as an iota of effort on her part, she smiled, and with her hand took the glistening drop of water that was rolling away from Sakura's emerald eyes, allowing it to dry itself upon her fingers. Her best friend – no. Her only purpose in life had finally understood what she herself had always felt, had accepted it, and at long last had shown a desire to return those feelings. Tomoyo had wished upon that star, and her wish had come true.

Her only regret was that the both of them would never truly have the chance to live it out.

Tomoyo's eyes began to close in upon the spark of life that was still within them, her mind drawing her back into herself as she slowly slipped off into the darkness of sleep, peacefully and without remorse. A contented smile etched forever upon her face, she released a final breath.

Sakura's eyes resumed their crying, the tears within them flying away silently in far more generous numbers than before. Her one hand placed Tomoyo's lifeless one down gently, while her other hand shook uncontrollably as it smoothed out the beautiful dark hair that was laid out before her. One last memorable gaze into the lifeless smile that her friend was portraying was all that she allowed herself before she pulled herself away, pushing off of the ground to rise to her feet.

In tandem with her rising motions, there also rose up an unwelcome emotion. A rare feeling that was welling up from within her, a feeling that she had only experienced twice before in her life. Once, when a snowy fate had stolen away a precious gift from a precious friend. Again, when her entire world had been obliterated by the power of the Nothing. Yet this new emotion far and greatly surpassed those from her memories, much to the point that she almost did not recognize it. This new feeling would have even frightened her severely, if it had not felt so correct for her to feel this way. And for the moment, it was the only true emotion that she felt she was capable of: unbridled hate. A passionate rage that sat within her, completely unrestricted in any way, shape, or form.

One way or another, it was time to end this nightmare.


	71. The Price to Pay

_8-1e: The Price to Pay_

In tandem with her rising motions, there also rose up an unwelcome emotion. A rare feeling that was welling up from within her, a feeling that she had only experienced twice before in her life. Once, when a snowy fate had stolen away a precious gift from a precious friend. Again, when her entire world had been obliterated by the power of the Nothing. Yet this new emotion far and greatly surpassed those from her memories, much to the point that she almost did not recognize it. This new feeling would have even frightened her severely, if it had not felt so correct for her to feel this way. And for the moment, it was the only true emotion that she felt she was capable of: unbridled hate. A passionate rage that sat within her, completely unrestricted in any way, shape, or form.

One way or another, it was time to end this nightmare.

"How dare you..."

Her mouth had moved to form the words, those very same words, and yet they were not to be hers to speak. Further enraged that her retribution would be so stolen away from her, she snapped her head about sharply to seek out the source of the words that should have been, by pure right, solely her own. What she soon found completely shocked her out of the miserable and burning anger that she feared she would never have escaped from otherwise.

Reios, with his katana held within a shaking and white-knuckled fist, took another deliberate step forward, his eyes refusing to rise away from the ground, "How dare you think that you can toy with human life. Prophecy be damned, she did not deserve that fate!"

His words were building up in volume, yet he remained motionless beyond the few paces that he had already taken.

"Reios..." Sakura muttered quietly, sorely caught between her own surging anger and the wanting to give solace to a friend in need.

He spoke again, "So a prophecy determined that one would die. What force in life, besides nature herself, has the right to determine the fate of one's life?"

His free fist shook uncontrollably in equivalency to his voice, while the knuckles of his sword-arm grew impossibly whiter still, "And yet now... now, she has died by my hand for a second time. A human life, gone, and I am at fault. And now I see how wrong all of this truly is. How wrong this damned, god-forsaken prophecy truly is."

Sakura shook her head fiercely, "Don't blame yourself! This isn't your fault! It's–!"

"This is every bit my fault!! _Every_!_ Single_!_ BIT!!_"

She recoiled just as fiercely as Reios spun about on her, with his entire body exhibiting an overwhelming rage to parallel what her own had originally been. But what scared her even more than his unrestricted yelling was the fierce and uncontrolled look of hostility that she was receiving, plainly visible behind the free-flowing tears of grief that were trailing down the entirety of his cheeks. If she, for whatever crazy reason, had thought to give him even the slightest nudge or smallest provocation right then and there, he would have attacked and killed her without hesitation. She was sure of it.

Reios slammed the edge of his katana against the ground in a fit, causing a loud metallic ringing to echo out, "I could have acted! I had the only means available to us to take up arms against such an atrocity. I could have saved her when you yourself were pleading that I do so! But instead, I let my childhood control me, and I allowed my fears and doubts to sway my judgement. Do you have any idea of how many times I wanted to just charge right in, only to see your waiting bodies at every single point I intended to cut? Do you!?

"I could have saved her, but instead I allowed a childish fear to destroy one of the most beautiful souls to ever grace this earth!"

Those final words were all that Sakura needed to hear to understand the source of his rage, for she understood it all too well, herself. The tears of loss streaming down his cheeks; the barely restrained heat of rage coloring his face; the fierce desire of retribution within his eyes. These feelings, she understood completely. These feelings that she held to herself as equally as he surely was to his own heart.

He had loved Tomoyo too.

He spun back about before he could vent more of his rage upon her. Sakura was not the one that deserved it. Instead, he redirected his gaze upwards towards the floating sorcerer that was patiently watching the drama below him unfold, and swung his katana angrily into the air towards the cloaked figure, "Yes, it _is_ my fault that she died. But I will be _damned_ if I will let the cause run free any longer!"

A curiosity overtook Sakura's own emotions, and allowed her to notice that there was some sort of glowing effect now surrounding them. A soft, almost non-existent white light that was permeating throughout the pitch-black area around them. But where was it coming from...?

"Do you know, demon, of how precious a human life is? Of how valuable each and every one of us can be? It is said that the value of a human being is beyond even scientific measure, their soul priceless in comparison to even the most coveted material treasure upon this planet. For one to toss such coveted treasures away is an admittance to the forfeiting of one's very own life."

Then she found the source of that glow. Reios, however he was doing it, had a visible aura of white light encompassing his entire body. It was both emanating from and flowing into him, all at the same time. And it was growing stronger.

"And the penance to you... you, who has taken away a coveted life that was dear to all, and priceless to some, there can be only one price. And for that price..."

The aura then pulsed fiercely, blinding Sakura and those behind her as Reios howled out his next words.

**"****_YOU SHALL PAY IN KIND!!_"**

The next few moments were all nothing more than a blur. In one instant, Reios was there, and in the next instant he was gone, vanished from their eyesight only to reemerge up in the air and behind where the levitating sorcerer was awaiting his "punishment". The light that surrounded Reios again intensified immeasurably, dwarfing the sorcerer's surprised counterattack by an impossibly considerable degree. And with the coming of the third dawn that evening, there came from him a feral cry that was indistinguishable from that of the most wild of animals.

The sorcerer's cry, as he retaliated against that all-powerful searing light, was ultimately feeble by comparison.

The two powers collided within a blinding clash of light against darkness, and the resulting explosion of excess power sent the entire world around the powerless spectators into a whitewash of a blazing field of Light. At the same moment that their visual senses were overtaken by the light, so too did they notice that both Reios's and the sorcerer's raging cries had ceased to exist.

When they could once again see clearly, they found themselves to be standing back within with Tsukimine Shrine. There was no longer an absolute darkness surrounding or covering them, except for the darkening skies above as the sun continued its recession beyond the horizon that was hidden by the city skyline. Their powers were at once restored to them, as such, but this paled in comparison to what had already been lost.

Every single pair of eyes immediately went on the alert for a possible counterattack from the sorcerer, and yet they found none. They searched about for signs of Reios's victorious return, and yet they found none. To them, the world was deathly silent, devoid of the two lives that had struggled just moments before within the darkness and the light. This sent practically every single one of them into a mode of panic, with heads and eyes scanning about everywhere around them, looking away in every which direction for the consequences of what had just taken place.

Finding nothing noteworthy, Sakura shook her head and glanced about quickly again as paced ahead a bit, "Wait... where's Reios?"

Being the more collected of the lot, Eriol stepped slowly past all of them and moved further into the shrine. He tested the air with his senses, and carefully made his approach to the relative position of where Reios and the dark sorcerer had last been seen back within that darkened barrier. What he soon felt there was extremely unsettling, and he was loathe to reveal his findings. In the end, however, his silence would only raise further questions. So as much as he knew that it would pain them, he would tell them the truth of what had occurred.

"Reios... is gone."

Sakura had not expected to hear that, nor was it something that she had wanted to hear, "Gone? What do...?"

Eriol nodded somberly, without looking back to them, "What we were just witness to was something that only the most practiced of sorcerers should have been able to execute. It would have been a difficult task to perform for most, even for the likes of Clow Reed, if they had been placed in the situation that we had just found ourselves in. In a world where we were separated from our powers, our magics and defenses useless to us, and with all of our lives inarguably on the line, he sought to light the path to freedom with his own life. He used his own inner life force as a source of power, and... expended it in the process."

From behind him, Sakura's voice muttered weakly, "Wait, no... Not again, it can't...."

Eriol looked ahead with a sad understanding, but knew that she would not be easily consoled. Instead, he could only finish his explanation, "What we just saw was Reios using his own spiritual essence – his soul – as a method of attack. My guess is that, in order to counter the darkness that the sorcerer had again surrounded us in, he subconsciously summoned up the power of his Force card and threw its magic into it the entirety of his inner light. By doing this, he effectively took his own life.

Eriol finally turned about to face his friends again, and locked his eyes tightly to Sakura's in order to ensure that his words would be marked as truth.

"He sacrificed himself for us."

Sakura was on the verge of losing herself once again. Yet even though she was able to remain in control, her clenched hands still moved close to her face, making ready to hide the tears that, deep down inside, she was surprised that she still had. She shook her head in denial, "No, not again. Not now. Why does... why does everyone have to die for this? It's not fair... Reios... Tomo..."

She could not even complete the name of her new love, and quickly found herself crying into her clenched hands unstoppably. A soft set of footsteps preceded a hand dropping down onto her shoulder gently, comforting in its intent, and she welcomed it. She did not care to know, however, to whom it belonged to or what its potential purpose could be, just as long as its owner would hold her. As such, she pulled that hand's owner into herself and forced the embrace that she was so desperate for, but Syaoran accepted it gladly. It was the only way he had of consoling her now. In a way, he was glad that she had decided to hide herself away in him, for he feared to show her his own tears that were now threatening to fall away. Tears given for the lives that he, too, had cared dearly for.

Footsteps moved quietly nearby the pair as she wept, followed by the sounds of shuffling before the footsteps resumed their slow pattering, moving ever closer. Through her downcast gaze, Sakura spotted her brother's familiar blue jeans and sneakers moving past her, followed by the white-clothed legs and bare feet that could only belong to her guardian Yue. She knew right away what it was that one of the two likely carried, but she could not find the courage to look up and verify it. If she had to look upon that lifeless face again, before she was ready, she was sure that she would be eternally lost to the depression that had already gripped her.

After a time unknown to them, Sakura's crying subsided away to mere hiccups. The last of her tears had finally taken their leave of her. She could not stand it any longer, and decided to take the risk that she might become emotionally lost to the depths of the darkness that had already taken the lives of two of her friends. Under Syaoran's support, she stepped meekly towards the stone bench that Touya had placed Tomoyo's body onto.

She seated herself on the edge of the bench, leaving just enough room so that she might easily take up Tomoyo's cold hand to hold it in one of her own, and with the other she brushed away a stray wisp of hair from that beautiful face. That gentle, contented smile still held itself on that face and, surprisingly, it was something that Sakura could not help but mirror. She wanted with all of her heart to voice her feelings once again, even though it was, by now, far too late for it to matter. So in this line of thinking, the best she could do was reveal her one true regret.

"I wish I had noticed sooner..."

Standing behind her, Syaoran again placed a comforting hand upon her shoulder as his mind processed her grief-stricken words. He was fully comprehensive of the implications of what he was hearing, but he found that he did not care. Regardless of the fact that Sakura now had feelings for someone other than himself, he did not care. He had mildly suspected of such feelings for the longest time, in fact. These one-sided feelings that Tomoyo had harbored for his Sakura. But he knew that, deep down within, he had never really cared. Not only had Tomoyo eventually become been a dear friend to him, as she had always been to Sakura, but there had also been a special bond between he and her as well. Certainly nothing as strong as what he felt for Sakura, or what the two girls had momentarily felt for each other, but it had been there nonetheless. It had been forged out of the constant struggles that the two had endured together that had one day allowed Syaoran to put words to his feelings for Sakura. They had, through this, grown extremely close as friends.

And now, the best he could do to honor that friendship was to be there for his Sakura. Should he ever be needed to comfort her further, he would do his utmost to offer to Sakura the amount of unconditional love that she so rightly deserved from both him _and _their departed friend.

Having quietly distanced himself from them, Eriol smiled gently and turned away to leave them to their mourning. He, too, would grieve for Tomoyo and Reios. But later, and in his own way. For now, there was a far more important task remaining to them that needed to be taken care of. He needed to seal away the rift that had been left behind by the sorcerer in his myriad attempts to pull the Void into this world. The tear in the fabric of space-time that had been worsened by their hasty and forced departure from the Void sorcerer's "absorption" spell was much too dangerous to just leave alone. He had to ensure that such a power would not be able to threaten the world ever again.

Yue followed along behind him, as they made their way to the sorcerer's last relative location and the focal point of the invisible tear in space. Once there, Eriol again found himself in awe of the residual power that had been left behind by the explosion of Light that Reios had caused. He marvelled at the amount of excess energy had been created by Reios's utilization of his own life force, and could sense the sheer enormity of the Light's blast radius as he approached. Even though most of that explosion had been thankfully contained within the power of whatever dark dimension it was that the sorcerer had been drawing from, a vast portion of it had still leaked away into the real world. It was simply amazing that neither themselves, nor anything on this side of the rift, for that matter, had been destroyed in the process.

He raised up a hand and began to weave a spell into the air with his fingertips, and then enchanted that spell with a silent incantation that was working its way through his mind and lips. He took an extreme care in completing the design for the invisible magic circle, and then energized it with his unvoiced words as he weaved it into the very heart of the unseen rift. In this way, he could ensure that the tear between the two worlds would heal itself naturally in time, while his seal acted as a locked door until such a time that said healing was completed.

Once his weaving was done, he placed his hand directly into the centre of the invisible circle, and passed enough of his magic into it that it began to glow with a barely noticeable silver radiance before vanishing back into the rift. Eriol then stepped back for a second to examine his handiwork, took an extra moment to ensure that the seal had been correctly placed, and then turned back to return to his friends.

Which was when the wind stirred softly from behind, granting him an extremely uneasy premonition that sent a stiff chill running down his spine. Within that wind, he had heard the echoes of rage passing over the area. He looked to Kerberos and the guardian's feline sense of hearing, and found that his old companion was now on the alert. Whatever it was that Eriol had just heard, Kerberos had heard it as well. A side glance at Yue then brought his attention back to the seal that he had just placed.

The magic seal within the rift, which was supposed to have been from now on invisible to normal human vision, was fluctuating into and out of phase with their world with a faint silver light. It was as if it were being pulled upon from the far side. At one point, it vanished for a rather long moment before re-materializing before them, only to vanish away once again. But this time, what came back through that tear in space-time was yet another ill-fated breeze. Eriol was certain that he could hear some kind of voice upon that wind, and he feared that he recognized it all too well.

The wind howled yet again...

_Why...?_


	72. Vengeance Sought

_8-1f: Vengeance Sought_

The magic seal within the rift, which was supposed to have been from now on invisible to normal human vision, was fluctuating into and out of phase with their world with a faint silver light. It was as if it were being pulled upon from the far side. At one point, it vanished for a rather long moment before re-materializing before them, only to vanish away once again. But this time, what came back through that tear in space-time was yet another ill-fated breeze. Eriol was certain that he could hear some kind of voice upon that wind, and he feared that he recognized it all too well.

The wind howled yet again...

_Why...?_

An explosive blast of wind followed the howling call, sending silvered and electrified shards of Eriol's magic seal all flying right back towards him and leaving him with little time to defend himself. What then saved him from being assaulted by the blasted fragments of his own magic was Yue's quick reflexes in erecting an energy shield before the path of the wind. Once the threat and commotion had all died away, a commotion that had easily brought the attention of everyone else to bear, a fully formed sentence emerged from the far side of the swirling black vortex that was now hovering in place of the once-invisible rift.

"_Why_ do you continually intend on interfering with your destined future?"

Vexation was the primary associated emotion to the weathered and ancient voice that they had heard, which was then followed by an emergent figure dressed up in familiar black robes. It even had a visible tear on the left side of the torso where a particular sword had attempted to cut through it. In some unexplainable way, the dark sorcerer that they had just seen vanquished by Reios's light now stood before them, completely unharmed in any way.

Eriol was the first to speak, although his words ended up betraying his former stance of self-control, "What did... how did you...?"

"Survive?" the sorcerer asked in amusement, completing the question, "It isn't that hard to survive such a pitiful attack when you have the infinite power of the Void on your side. But I will admit that he had me going for a while."

Sakura could only stare ahead blankly as she uttered, "Then, Reios... he..."

"A noble sacrifice, that," was the old man's answer, "But in vain, if I might add. It was a shameful waste of power, to be sure, but it suits me just fine. He's saved me the effort of having to take him out next, and I'll have to thank the insolent brat for that the next time I happen to see his spiritual energy floating about. And so with his useless act, a representation of the strongest has been purged, to show that nothing can stand against me. Is this not proof enough that you cannot resist fate?"

To the sorcerer's query, there were no replies. Not any beliefs thrown out in defense or defiance, nor any witty retorts to counter his words. Instead, he was placed into a situation where he was outnumbered five to one, and all five of his opponents looked ready to burn him alive with just the fierce glares that they were giving him. Sakura, in particular, was drained of all her remaining emotions, save for that one rare fragment of thought that had recently found her. That all-consuming hate once again broke through to the surface, threatening to take over full control of her mind and body. But before she could allow that to happen, there was still one more thing that was left for her to do.

If Reios could not do it, then Sakura would do it herself. What was left to her now was one final chance at vengeance, and she would have it by any means available to her.

"I see," he said simply, "and yet you wish to fight me, still. Very well. I shall then teach you the futility of your actions."

The fabric of the sorcerer's dark cloak began to flutter about as a visible layer of darkness overtook it, reflecting away what few rays of sunlight that were still remaining. In effect, it created the illusion of a second, oil-slicked skin; supple in movement, yet it was something that they could sense would be more than difficult to penetrate, physically. Then below him, there also appeared a thin ring of black mist to paint the ground around his feet. It was seemingly simplistic in design, but within its magic they could sense waves upon waves of an empty darkness just waiting to be unleashed. And to finalize his preparations, the Void sorcerer formed up above his head several dark orbs of mist, similar to those that he had originally used against the Fly-assisted Reios.

Through the darkness of his cowl, and even though his face still remained hidden from view, he grinned maliciously at the three that were still facing him, "And to top things off, I'll even let you fight within your own realm, this time. By all means, use your full power at your discretion, and witness how power_less_ you truly are."

Two separate streams of fire and ice converged as one and slammed into the sorcerer's position from above just as he finished speaking, engulfing him within the magic of the two guardians that had decided to take to the skies for a preemptive strike. White-hot liquid flame washed overtop of him as a furious blizzard of crystalline shards simultaneously shattered ceaselessly against the sorcerer's black "skin". The two guardians were visibly putting everything they had into overwhelming the old man before he could even begin, with the strain of effort severely marking both of their faces. Yet as the chaos cleared away, Kerberos roared savagely and almost let loose with a second barrage of flame, after seeing that his strongest breath attack ever had had almost no effect on his enemy whatsoever. The sorcerer's shadow-like defenses had merely wavered slightly, but that was it. Kerberos's mood was then further worsened still, when the old man responded by crossing his arms to take up a stance of mock patience.

Yue, however, chose to act upon this retaliatory impulse. Darting up high and around to his opponent's left flank before anyone could even notice that he had moved, he slipped an arrow into place and released it to its flight in a singular motion. He grinned confidently when the sorcerer made no move whatsoever to evade the projectile, only to find himself completely taken aback when the silver arrow merely bounced right off of the protective skin that the old man had created. The cloaked sorcerer retaliated by merely turning his mocking attention towards the bewildered moon guardian that was now far above him, his cowl-covered malice hidden yet still quite evident.

This malice was something that Yue could practically sense, and the urge to wipe away whatever ugly smirk the sorcerer was likely wearing quickly overtook him. He dropped himself into a free fall only to snap his wings out at the last second to catch the wind, shooting fort like a bullet towards the awaiting sorcerer. Focusing every single bit of magic into his right hand, Yue's whole arm immediately began to glow with a vicious blue light, with the physical boundaries of that light becoming harder than diamond and twice as sharp as any known sword. In this way, he chose to engage the sorcerer through close-range combat, and evaded with ease the several tendrils of mist-swords that had risen up from the ground to deny him his assault.

Yue's arm struck home, his energy bladed arm slamming sharply into the sorcerer's dark mist-skin, just above his right elbow. He struggled hard to push past that outer shell, causing sparks of blue lightning and clouds of black smoke to rise up in all directions around them. To Yue's chagrin, however, the sorcerer simply stood his ground, refusing to move. He even saw fit to relax his stance, even as Yue pushed ever harder to break through and completely sever the old man's arm. Eventually, the effort became too much to bear, forcing the angelic guardian to break off the assault before he ended up draining away too much of his power. A strong beat of his wings pulled him quickly away from the battleground, landing him just in front of where Sakura and Eriol awaited. A moment later saw Kerberos alighting himself beside Yue, minding his hind leg as he touched down. All the while, the sorcerer looked completely nonchalant as to where the two guardians were concerned.

Eriol nodded to Sakura, their next attack already planned. Together they released their chosen cards, allowing the twin avatars of fire to flee from their sealed forms. The two Firey cards eyed their prey with much loathing, drawing upon the emotions felt by their masters, and utilized this feeling to unleash a pair of massive fire balls. The two attacks shot away from the hands of the avatars, racing towards the sorcerer at an impossible speed. At the last second, the two fireballs split apart and sped away from each other only to come about in a symmetrical U-turn and flank the sorcerer, striking against him from both sides.

The two balls of flame erupted on contact, simultaneously enveloping the sorcerer within a miniature nova of flame and light. With the powers of the two cards merged together, they had created an intensive heat that was surely more powerful than the very sun that had just set over the horizon of the city's buildings. The two card masters held their stares straight into the roiling flames, as intensely bright as it was, watching for any sign of whether or not their attack had succeeded.

Yet the old man just walked his way out of the flames, utterly unharmed. He simply exited calmly through the outer perimeter of the wall of red and orange just before it began to dissipate entirely. His dark shield of mist-skin rippled slightly to emphasize its protective presence, and then fell still again. But instead of the retaliation that everyone had expected would follow, the Void sorcerer was rather content in simply crossing his arms again. He seemed satisfied enough just to let them see for themselves the futility of their actions, and it was working.

Eriol stood back from the fight to consider his options, thinking that perhaps they needed to instead outlast this foe, instead of overpowering him. Sakura, on the other hand, would not let herself be satisfied with the wait and see approach. She instinctively acted upon her feelings, and sent out her most trusted card to enact the vengeance that she so deeply desired.

"Windy!" she invoked, drawing out the wind avatar even as her Firey was just returning to her hand. Requiring neither command nor direction, Windy surfed about through the air and used her power to approach the sorcerer from several different directions at once. Having surrounded him, she then took to weaving around and about him as though she were forming a web-like cocoon with her wisps and ropes of wind. Then, when the web was soon completed, Windy grabbed a hold of one of the loose ends of that web and pulled hard upon it.

The sorcerer actually reacted to this by shooting up an arm to enact a part of his own power. In response, the hardened skin of mist that had so far covered and protected him immediately expanded out into a kind of half-transparent shell, intercepting the web of wind as it began to constrict down upon him. The two forces thus began their battle against one another, and although no sparks or vanquished mist flew away from the scene this time, something of far greater importance was shown to them. While the Windy was working to exact its power, the protective shell of her foe was beginning to visibly decrease in size, with rippling waves ever so slightly marring its surface each time it shrunk. It was a near to an agonizingly slow process, but it was definitely being forced to recede under the constricting power power of Windy's web.

Sakura poured more of her strength into her card, seeking to speed the rate at which the shell was collapsing. It had the desired effect; and soon had the shell closing in upon its master at a rate that would soon have him crushed under his own darkness. But the sorcerer had other ideas, and once again shot his hand up before him to beckon yet more of his power into the world. The summons was answered by a connecting funnel of darkness that rushed its way out of the swirling black ring at his feet, which then merged with the shell of mist to reinforce its power. Sakura attempted to focus even harder upon her desired victory, yet in the end it only served to slow the reversal of Windy's valiant efforts.

Before long, the strain upon Windy's binding web started to become visibly evident. With the mist shield now having expanded to almost twice its original size, one by one the multiple ropes of wind began to struggle and snap apart from all of the excessive tension. Windy considered expanding her web in order to compensate, as she still had more than enough power to perform what her mistress had requested of her. Intent on completing her duty, she dove right back in after the sorcerer to do just that only to be pierced straight through her torso with a lancet of mist that had projected itself out from the shell unexpectedly. The unforeseen attack ended up literally shattering Windy's physical form, as though she were a statue of fragile glass, and forced her fragmented remains back into her sealed form before Sakura could move to empower her once more.

"Some of our attacks seem to be having an effect on his defenses," Eriol noted to her, "yet at the same time do nothing to hinder his power. If we can figure– _out of the way_!"

Eriol pushed Sakura aside just as he dodged away for himself, narrowly avoiding a sphere of darkness that had flown itself away from above the sorcerer and fast towards them. With nothing left to strike at, it exploded against the ground where they had previously been standing, leaving behind a large smoking crater in the process. The two of them both fell hard to the ground thanks to Eriol's rash actions, although he managed to recover slightly more quickly than Sakura was able to. This placed her at a severe disadvantage when a second sphere left its orbit around the sorcerer's head, flying along a path that was set directly towards her.

"Earthy!" she cried, her instincts taking over for her to invoke any protective means that was available to her. Earthy responded in kind by ripping a towering wall of cement and earth from the ground before her to absorb the brunt of the assault, causing the deadly sphere to harmlessly explode against the thick barrier of earth instead of herself.

When Sakura managed to take back to her feet, Eriol moved in close beside her to whisper of his plan of attack, "We have to maintain a continual stream of elemental and magical energy at it. As many attack cards as possible, and all at once!"

She looked at him in confusion, "How will the cards have enough power to break through if we use so many at one time?"

"Look out, another one!" came Yue's shout, granting them just enough time to dodge away from yet another attacking sphere of darkness. They watched in horrified amazement as the sphere shot clean past them and struck directly into the trunk of a nearby tree, exploding loudly on impact and completely vaporizing that trunk from existence. The crashing and creaking of branches and wood bending and slamming against each other rang out even through the silence that followed afterwards.

Eriol quickly regrouped with Sakura to finish his orders, "Windy showed us the way. There's not enough time to explain further, just do it!"

She responded to his orders by pulling out three of her weaker attack cards. She reasoned that if she could utilize all three cards at once while still being able to maintain their full potential, then it would have the effect that Eriol was looking for. To this, she revealed her hand to hold her Shot and Arrow cards, as well as her Thunder card as a reserve offensive option. With her cards decided, she released the first two to their task, and noted that with the very first few shots taken by those cards that they were already having an effect.

The sorcerer's shield rippled violently against the flurry of assaults, with visible fluctuations in the field of mist appearing for each point that was struck by one of the energy-based projectiles. The two child-like forms flying circles above him were darting off in all sorts of directions, constantly firing off multiple waves of magic attacks and not once letting up on their offensive. This effect was further increased when Eriol's Watery came around from behind the sorcerer in a sneak attack maneuver and began to pelt his spherical shield with an endless assault of hammer-like water jets. Sakura also noticed a length of green vine creeping its way along the ground near the sorcerer's feet, which soon found itself climbing up and over the shield of mist. Eriol's Wood soon began to constrict down upon the shadowy force field as it went, much like her Windy had initially done, and it was also having the same effect.

Not to be outdone, Syaoran finally took advantage of the opening presented to him by the sorcerer's current distractions by sending a summoning charm flying above him. Invoking his favored element to do his bidding, he encased whatever few parts of the shield that the Wood card had missed within an endless stream of crackling lightning. Even the two guardians decided to join in on all the fun, and added their combination attack of fire and crystal rain into the mix.

With so many spells attacking the sorcerer all at once, it was like his empty darkness was being filled away, bit by bit. What little of him and his shield that was left visible to them, which was slowly being further engulfed by their elemental magics at that, only added to such an illusion. That was when Sakura knew what it was that Eriol had discovered; she recognized what it was that they were actually doing to their opponent. It was much like how her Hope card had required the consumption of reality to fill its negative-energy based void, and thus empower itself through the energies that it was consuming. But since this Void sorcerer was using the Power of the Void directly, she realized that their attacks would have the opposite effect. By filling up the constant streams of the Void that he was bringing into this world, they would be able to gradually weaken his strength!

If not for having been fully blocked away from view by the multitude of magic attacks, the sorcerer would otherwise have been seen to be visibly weakening with all of the effort that he was having to put into maintaining his shield. And yet for as much strength as it did cost him to keep up such a defense, he would surely not be outdone here. He grinned confidently, and beckoned to the shadowy ring upon ground so that more his vacant power might be infused into the shield. Yet it proved to be too late of an act, as a thin tongue of lightning broke through the weakened mist-shield before he could fully restore it. The white-hot electrical charge left in its wake a rather painful singe mark along his right arm, and put a rather satisfied grin onto Syaoran's face at the old man's resultant cry of anguish.

Yet this insufferable act only served to increase that old man's already overflowing ire. Indeed, it was what took away all that had been left of his patience.

"Enough is enough!" came the old man's bellow, just as he threw his arms wildly through the air to send his few remaining spheres of mist flying out in all directions. Two of them flew away to random locations in the area and exploded upon impacting against the ground, both of them missing anyone of importance by an extremely wide margin. They were all almost ready to think that their sorcerer for had somehow lost complete control his senses, until the two remaining spheres that had shot skyward took advantage of the distraction, turned about in mid-flight, and struck directly into the physical forms of the Watery and Shot cards. They exploded immediately on impact, shattering the two cards to pieces and forcing them to revert into their sealed forms.

Not particularly happy with having to see its friends being literally broken into little bits, Arrow retaliated fiercely with a massive summoning of arrows, as many as she could muster. The skies were subsequently filled up with a sky-blotting swarm of blue-tinted shafts that were pointed and released to their target without a second thought. Yet she could only stare in disappointment as they were all just outright absorbed by the shield of mist. Her attack had been completely ignored by dark defense and sorcerer both.

"Pest..." the sorcerer muttered, looking up to glare at the floating little girl for a moment before clapping his gloved hands together. All hell broke loose around them after that, as the shield of mist protecting him exploded outwards on cue to send its enormous amount of negative energy out into the area around him. Sakura had just enough time to encase everyone nearby and behind her within her Shield, ultimately saving them all from the bulk of the attack even as the Shield was itself sundered for defending against negative energy with its own positive influence. Arrow, on the other hand, who was still floating above the battlefield, was even less fortunate than its sibling, and on contact was shattered into fragments of its physical form by the energy wave.

Sighting an opportunity, Sakura threw her Thunder card into the fray and invoked it before the sorcerer could seize the chance to restore his expended shield of mist. The thunder beast charged straight out of its glowing sealed form and howled mightily to the sky to summon its power down upon the weakling human before it. The air around the shrine soon became charged with an electrical storm, despite the immaculately clear evening skies, allowing blackened clouds to spontaneously spring up above and all around them while silvery bolts of lightning incessantly rained themselves down upon the awaiting sorcerer.

Clouds of stirred dust and flashes of lightning quickly had them all blinded as to the old man's fate. Yet when at last the deafening sounds of crashing thunder had died away and left the world in a ringing silence, they could still hear his labored and heavy breathing. That in itself was a good enough sign that they were winning since, even if he was still alive, it was obvious that they were starting to wear him down. But when they were finally able to see through the clouds of dust to gaze upon him directly again, it was as if all of their attacks had never even occurred. Once again they found him encased within a second skin of a protective dark mist, with yet more mist spheres orbiting above his head like they had never left him. But even through all of this, they were still able to at least take a mild pleasure in the fact that their opponent was almost to the point where he was having to support himself with his hands upon his knees to remain upright.

Still, the Void sorcerer's seemingly deteriorated strength was only a temporary victory, all of it planned out as a part of his show of power. For just as quickly as the Thunder had struck home, he was already back in control of himself. To deny the truth of what everyone had been seeing just moments before, the old man stood straight up and took in a deep, calming breath, looking for all the world like he had not even lifted a finger against them.

He shook his cowl-covered head sadly, "Well, children? Are you done playing around yet?"

Sakura did not like how he had said that, and repeated his words harshly, "Playing around!?"

"Indeed," he confirmed, "For as much fun as you probably just had with your turn at the wheel, my patience has grown thin with your continued antics. And lo, you have yet to even scratch the surface of my power! Such is the beauty of the Power of the Void: one cannot destroy what does not–."

The rest of that sentence was either rudely covered away, or was cut off by the sorcerer's own intention. In either case, those remaining words were nonetheless muted by a thick stream of lightning coursing in from the sorcerer's right side. Sakura turned sharply in that direction to find that Syaoran was attempting his attack all over again, for what she had failed noticed in their combined assault, he had seen. With all of their magic at their disposal, his elemental lightning had been the only attack to pierce through the sorcerer's shield. Under this line of thinking, he thought that perhaps there was a chance that he could do it again. This thought played through his mind forcefully, and caused both his efforts and his elemental lightning to increase in intensity.

The Void sorcerer would not be distracted by this blinding display, however.

"Why, you uppity little guttersnipe," he muttered, "..._I said enough_!"

The sorcerer's words were marked with a wide swing of his burn-marked right arm, and his movements sent the bulk of his protective shielding flying fast into a head-on collision with Syaoran. It also took with it the majority of Syaoran's lightning attack, reflecting all of it back and forcing him to defend himself against his own elemental attack, at least up until the dark wave itself swept him completely off of his feet. He landed none too gently a dozen or so meters behind his original position, with the results of his failed offensive leaving him utterly dazed and momentarily unsure of his bearings.

"There will be no more of your interference!" the old man shouted bitterly, before beckoning one of his black spheres to hover above an outstretched hand. He waited for neither chance nor signal, and threw it forth with a heavy lob of his arm as soon as it was in place. His aim was true, and with Syaoran still completely disoriented from his own reflected attack, it left the downed man not a single chance to evade.

Sakura threw her Shield's power – or rather, what was left of it's shattered being – straight into the path of the flying sphere to intercept it before it could achieve its deadly goal. Her defensive card rose up several meters away from the recovering swordsman, and intensified what was left of its power into the singular point that the sphere would soon strike at.

At the direct apex of the Shield's gathered power, the sphere struck, wavered briefly within the long and drawn out millisecond in time, and then shot straight through the re-shattered card to speed ever onwards towards its human target.

Sakura did not even bother to register the Shield's sealed form returning to her hand. She was too busy shouting out Syaoran's name, trying vainly to awaken him before it would be too late for him to save himself. But she also knew that it was useless, because he was moving far too slowly for him to be in control of his faculties within the one or two seconds that were left to him. This also meant that there was not enough time for her to try anything else.

It was happening again. Someone else she cared for – someone she loved – was about to be killed, and there was absolutely nothing more she could do to prevent it.

Syaoran came back to the real world just a split-second before impact, and raised his arms up defensively against what he knew would be his inevitable demise. His eyes squeezed shut instinctively, unwilling as they were to watch his death speed towards him.

The rest of his sentence was either rudely covered away, or was cut off by his own intention. In either case, those remaining words were nonetheless muted by a thick stream of lightning coursing in from the sorcerer's right side. Sakura turned sharply in that direction to find that Syaoran was attempting his attack all over again, for what she had failed noticed in their combined assault, he had seen. With all of their magic at their disposal, his elemental lightning had been the only attack to pierce through the sorcerer's shield. Under this line of thinking, he thought that perhaps there was a chance that he could do it again. This thought played through his mind forcefully, and caused both his efforts and his elemental lightning to increase in intensity.


	73. Encore

_8-1g: Encore_

Sakura did not even bother to register the Shield's sealed form returning to her hand. She was too busy shouting out Syaoran's name, trying vainly to awaken him before it would be too late for him to save himself. But she also knew that it was useless, because he was moving far too slowly for him to be in control of his faculties within the one or two seconds that were left to him. This also meant that there was not enough time for her to try anything else.

It was happening again. Someone else she cared for – someone she loved – was about to be killed, and there was absolutely nothing more she could do to prevent it.

Syaoran came back to the real world just a split-second before impact, and raised his arms up defensively against what he knew would be his inevitable demise. His eyes squeezed shut instinctively, unwilling as they were to watch his death speed towards him.

Which was when a bright flash of light blinded him even through his closed eyelids, accompanied along by the ringing peal of metal striking against metal.

"Alright! Who started the party without me!?"

All eyes present, once relieved of the blinding light, turned to the rather perturbed voice only to find Syaoran's life now owing its respects to Reios's last-second save. It then occurred to them all that Reios was actually standing there, with his silver sword held high from the follow-through of having batted away the sphere of mist. The sudden change of pace caused several gasps of astonishment to ring out from every direction around him.

The sorcerer, in particular, was almost speechless, "You! But you, when...! How did you...!?"

"Escape?" Reios finished for him, all while wearing a rather pleased look on his face, "It's not my problem that you left the back door open behind you. Mind you, I had a little help from a friend in getting through it," he added, casually holding up one of his cards in the process.

"But... but that power!" the Void sorcerer stuttered, "You used up your entire life force in that blast! Y-you should be dead!"

Reios raised up an eyebrow inquisitively, "Hey, I don't even know what the hell I just did back there, but I'm pretty sure I'm not dead here."

Reios purposefully turned about, after that, to pull Syaoran up off of the ground, and could not help but relish in the surprised look of his comrade. Then, without a second thought of his opponent's presence, he _sauntered_ across the shrine grounds towards where his friends now awaited him. It was as though Reios were taking an afternoon stroll through the park, as he was acting completely oblivious to opponent and danger both. Though, in his utterly stunned state at having been witness to the impossible, the sorcerer was quite unable to take any offense to such an act.

"You know, those mist orb... sphere... things... whatever. They hurt," Reios informed them calmly as he approached, switching his sword to his off-hand to flex his fingers purposefully, "My hands are still stinging from that swing."

Sakura was nearly in tears again, although this time they were being created through a sense of sheer euphoria, "You're alive!?"

"Somehow," was his simplistic reply, "I've no idea what I did back there, but it sure knocked me out for a bit. Sorry for losing control of myself, by the way. I have a _lot_ to make up for now, I think."

Eriol was unable to help himself, and grinned widely at the man's lack of care about the seriousness of the current situation. Regardless, he offered up an explanation, "What you did, by my guess, was utilize your own inner life essence in an all-out attack with your Force card, the end result of which was a burst of Light energy that broke open a hole through his artificial 'absorption' world. However, with the size of the blast that you caused, and with how much residual energy you had left behind, I find it hard to believe that you are standing here now."

Reios merely shrugged, "Like I said, I have no idea how I did that, so I'm just going to be happy that it did whatever it did."

"But how did you get out of that Void spell?" Sakura asked him pressingly.

"This guy," he replied simply, and held up his card again for them to see more clearly. It was an old female-like figure with an outstretched arm passing and disappearing through some kind of mirror only to reappear on the other side of a separate mirror. The name inscribed onto the card was "the Warp".

When they had taken a good look at it, he turned it around to inspect it for himself, "I guess it lets me go to any particular point that I've been to before, although I think that the amount of power it needs is based on the relative distance to the target destination. Alternate realities must count as the 'very far away' type, because I _seriously _had to focus in order to get back to here."

"I am actually inclined to believe this one as a coincidence," Eriol remarked in amazement, "Not only should you be dead, but you should have also been effectively trapped within the false world that had been created by that absorption spell."

Reios crossed his arms to give Eriol a serious look, and intoned sharply, "Would everyone _please_ stop telling me that I'm supposed to be dead? It's giving me the creeps!"

"It doesn't matter," Sakura told him, her normal energetic smile having finally returned to her face, "I'm just glad that you're here."

Reios nodded back with an equally cheerful smile, "Me too, because now I think we can finally fix this mess."

"Fix?" the Void sorcerer called after them, interrupting Sakura's own question as to Reios's meaning, "The only thing that needs fixing here is the fact that you're still standing!"

To Eriol, the only one who was still watching Reios after that interruption, it seemed as if the returned warrior had just snapped. With eyes bulging wide to match the snarling anger visible on his face, he swung his sword about in an arc high above him to point it at the local annoyance, and in so doing struck the edge of its blade against a card that no one had noticed him put into play. All at once, the sword began to glow with a powerful light even as it began to absorb all the light that was around it, taking in an excessive amount of energy before releasing it all as a concentrated beam that took the off-guard sorcerer completely by surprise. What little of the Force's energy wave that did not pierce clean through the old man's chest then ended up pushing him backwards and right through the ruptured rift that spontaneously reappeared directly behind him in all of its swirling blackness. That rift was immediately after closed off as it was intercepted, and subsequently destroyed, by the tail end of Reios's attack.

Either by having killed the old man, or by having knocked him back into his own world, the end result of Reios's actions was still certain: the sorcerer had finally left them alone.

He followed up with a derogatory command, "Put a sock in it."

"Nice shot," Kerberos complimented, as he limped his way up to the group once the commotion had died down, "I guess that your little surprise finally managed to put the windbag out of commission. He was starting to get on my nerves, anyway. So... that just leaves us with one more problem..."

Kerberos turned his head about to stare past the group, needlessly indicating as to his meaning. The rest of them all turned for themselves to face the ultimate tragedy that had resulted from all of the chaos that they had been forced to endure over the past two weeks, and still they found themselves somewhat shocked that it had to have turned out this way.

Sakura made her way again towards the bench that continued to bear Tomoyo's body, and stared passively into that beautiful smile once again.

"We'll have to bring her home," she uttered quietly, "so that her mother can arrange a funeral. Of course, if we do that, it's going to mean that we'll have to explain about everything that happened here... all of it. I don't want to have to lie about how all of this took place. Tomoyo would never forgive us, if we did. We'll be letting out all of our secrets, but it's not like that even matters now..."

The others fully understood what Sakura was getting at. Something of such grave importance, like the death of someone's daughter, was not something that they could just hide away with one of their fanciful cover stories that they had always had at the ready. And that was if their consciences would have even allowed them to commit such an unspeakable act. There was only one path for them now: they would all have to confront Tomoyo's mother directly. They would have to convince her of the truth of the matter, and come clean with the circumstances surrounding Tomoyo's death. If there was to be any hope of reconciliation in the future, then there could be no holding back.

They stood there in silent vigil, after that, having finally won for themselves a moment of peace in which they could reflect upon their own lives, and of how Tomoyo had influenced each and every one of the minutes that she had spent with them. Or rather, all but one of them reflected upon this, for Reios was too busy staring ahead into nothing as he stood lost within in his thoughts. He mindlessly scratched lightly at the side pocket of his jeans where his cards resided, and clenched a fist as an indecisiveness struck at him. But ultimately, he knew.

"We might not have to deal with any of that," he muttered silently.

Sakura looked up and turned towards him slowly, unable to believe that she had just heard him say that. She was not in the mood to be toyed with, even if it was from one of her friends. One whom she had recently believed as dead, at that. Then she instinctively attempted to take a step away from him, despite the fact that the stone bench that she had just turned away from was blocking her retreat. Both Reios and Eriol could immediately see the rebuilding of fear within her eyes, and their faces soon took to mimicking hers just from simple intuition.

Reios was the first to respond verbally, "Don't tell me..."

They both turned around together to sight the source of Sakura's disbelieving countenance, and found themselves faced with an impossible scenario: dark mist pouring out freely from a visible tear within the wooden frame of the nearby shrine archway. Not to be confused with the tear that Eriol had tried to seal away, the one that Reios had earlier created in his mad attempt at redemption and then destroyed mere moments ago, this new rupture was a hole seemingly drilled right through the very fabric of reality itself. It seemed to lead into a world where an absolute nothingness existed, a reality (or lack thereof) that defied all forms of human perception. It was, in all ways, quite unlike the Reios-made tear that had lead into that darkness of "absorption". Rather, they all instinctively knew that this new tear had absolutely nothing to do with their world, and that it was never supposed to in the first place.

The fallacy of it all laid within the defiance of their visual and magical senses, which was almost nauseating to try and consider. Each time they examined the tear within the archway, they would see nothing beyond it, and would be able to sense absolutely nothing. It was as if the tear was not even there. Yet at the same time, they could _see_ that the tear was still there, and that beyond its gaping maw there was a darkness most infinite. This constant contradiction of their reality clashing against the lack of reality on the far side of the tear was truly disorienting.

What was at first a source of impossibility then became the very defiance of all hope, as a familiar cloaked form passed its way through the tear. Its body was literally fuming with large clouds of black mist that were pouring out of every available opening within the cloak: from the coat tails, sleeves, and its varied nicks and cuts, to even the gaping hole in the chest area that revealed nothing but perpetual black within.

Reios howled out with a raging cry, "_Gaaahh_!! Why won't you _die_ _already_!!?"

For once, there was no boastful reply about his absolute power to follow up such words. Instead, there was only the threatening movement of hands and limbs as the mist-shrouded Void sorcerer jerked his arms up to point both palms forward towards them. Beyond this, he merely stood there as still as a statue, as the 'doorway' behind him shut itself. This granted Eriol a small window in which to voice his opinion.

"He's acting on a grudge," Eriol intoned, though he dared not take his eyes off of the stock-still blackened soul before him. Even so, he could sense from the piercing stares behind him that his words would require some explaining.

So he started talking, "A grudge that Clow Reed himself had instilled long before all of this even began. At one point in his life, Clow was actually approached by this old man – we even have a name for him, finally: Eadric Amaker, who, at the time, was a young scholar that was traveling and studying in the arts of sorcery. As a classic tale of a powerless man seeking great power, this Eadric propositioned that he and Clow should join together to found such a magic – a magic that would raise humanity into a new and higher plane of existence. His interests were piqued, and for a slight moment, Clow actually put some thought towards joining in on this tantalizing offer to discover a power that was even greater than his own. However, with his unparalleled ability of foresight, Clow Reed was soon able to foretell of two possible outcomes to his new scholar friend's success: either they would bring about the true immortality of man, or they would cause the coming of man's end in order to favor the ascension of this new power.

"Neither of these two scenarios sat well with Clow's philosophical views, and so in a rare moment in his life, he chose to act. With the full intention of stopping the scholar, Clow initially agreed to aid Eadric in his quest for power, but later betrayed him when that power was close to being attained, and in the process joined forces with our Draconian friend, Richard. Eadric retaliated against this by unleashing a pact with several elemental spirits that were under his command, and when that failed, he then attempted to draw his precious Void into himself so that he might attack Clow directly. Richard made to stop this from happening, but we all know the results of that attempt.

"Yet in the end, Eadric's relative inexperience with magic proved to be his downfall, and he was sealed away along with both his element minions and his new Draconian thrall, as we were already told before. The magicks of the element's prisons were then used to lock away the rift that Eadric had created between the real world and the Void, and him along with it. All were safely secreted away until such a time came that we three were ready to deal with him.

Through all of this dialogue, the sorcerer had continued to keep to his place, and all of this inaction was putting Eriol even more on edge than before. Calming his nerves with a quick breath, he continued, "All of these events are memories that have just been revealed to me. Clow Reed chose to seal this scholar away instead of defeating him, because he knew that he would not be able to singlehandedly defeat the power that his former companion had more or less acquired. Nor did he care to even try, really. Unwilling as he was to sacrifice himself or his 'children', the Clow Cards, the greater good of mankind ultimately went ignored by him, but not forgotten.

"However, his twisted mentality and skewed morality is beside the point. In any case, he lacked both the ability and the desire to take the task for himself, and instead hid away both the scholar-turned-sorcerer and his minions under the pretense of wanting to one day save them. But in the end, Clow knew that he could not save them on his own, and so chose to leave the task to us, the three successors to his power. We whom would one day rival his greatness would be the ones to bear this burden.

"The only thing that mattered to the betrayed scholar, however, was just that. He had been betrayed. He had been on the very cusp of his life's greatest achievement, only to be shot down by the very man who had agreed to help him transcend his existence. It is likely that such a betrayal instilled within him an instinctive desire for revenge, and it now seems that we have incited the very core of his desires. I fear that the worst is yet to come."

"Like hell," Reios muttered, lowering his silvered sword to the ground as he readied himself for a running charge. In response, the sorcerer's gloved hands glowed with a sickly black aura, with his tangibly increasing power being further darkened by a feral growl that escaped from his black cowl. It was a senseless, perhaps almost a rabid snarling, making it sound as though this old man – this Eadric – had utterly lost his mind.

Everyone readied up their strongest magicks as a countermeasure, trying to prepare themselves against whatever it was that the sorcerer intended to unleash upon them. Eadric's power then revealed itself as a broad opaque wall of black, which formed up and launched against them within the space of a single heartbeat. With no time being given to prepare a proper defensive against it, they instead rushed headlong into the mobile wall of darkness to try and break through it. Their last remaining hope was that they would have to somehow survive the attack and engage their foe before he could attack again.

Which was when a loud metallic crash, much like the sound of a high-pitched brass gong, rang out through the night to strike at the wall of darkness long before it could come into contact with anything of importance. It shattered apart and dispersed from view as the crashing sound also fell away, much in the way like what the Void sorcerer had done to their various summoned Cards.

Even as everyone else pulled back from their interrupted impromptu offensive, a snarling Eadric turned about for himself to face towards the entrance of the shrine. He was both glaring and growling furiously at a darkened form that had previously not been there, but now stood silhouetted against what little light remained of the now-set evening sun. Having sighted this figure for himself, Reios reset his stance towards it for another charge, all while carefully considering this new and potential threat.

Sakura, meanwhile, was overcome by an unexplainable sense of nostalgia from that crashing noise, and unknowingly voiced the question, "Who?"

Eriol grinned with an utter confidence, "They're finally here."

Eadric was no longer paying any mind to the five that he had originally faced, and instead chose to launch another wall of darkness towards this mysterious new person. A silhouetted arm rose up, in reply, bearing in its hand what looked like a small roundish object. And as that object reached the apex of its arm's reach, it recreated the same loud crashing noise that they had all heard from before. The brash wailing, as though it were made up of a solid substance, shattered through the wall as if its blackness had been comprised of glass. Eadric's attack had been stilled well before it had even begun to move.

Syaoran was not about to be toyed with, and demanded to the shadowed figure that stood beneath the archway, "Who are you!?"

"Has it truly been so long," came the all-too-familiar female voice, "that you can no longer remember me?"


	74. A World of Magic

_8-1h: A World of Magic_

Eadric was no longer paying any mind to the five that he had originally faced, and instead chose to launch another wall of darkness towards this mysterious new person. A silhouetted arm rose up, in reply, bearing in its hand what looked like a small roundish object. And as that object reached the apex of its arm's reach, it recreated the same loud crashing noise that they had all heard from before. The brash wailing, as though it were made up of a solid substance, shattered through the wall as if its blackness had been comprised of glass. Eadric's attack had been stilled well before it had even begun to move.

Syaoran was not about to be toyed with, and demanded to the shadowed figure that stood beneath the archway, "Who are you!?"

"Has it truly been so long," came the all-too-familiar female voice, "that you can no longer remember me?"

The figure then stepped forward into the light of a nearby hanging lamp to identify herself, forcing out an excited cry from Sakura, "Ms. Mizuki!"

The red-haired woman smiled brightly, "I am pleased that you still remember me. How are you all faring?"

"Not well, actually," Reios replied as he back-stepped away from her to regroup with his friends, "but thanks for the assist."

"Did it work out?" Eriol asked her anxiously.

"We received the message that you sent from earlier this morning, and rushed back to Japan with all possible haste," Ms. Misuki replied, "I apologize that we could not be here any sooner, but Mr. Quillen was more or less working on borrowed time when he was helping me to gather up the forces that we needed. He left me with quite a bit of work to do."

Uncaring for the reasons behind her tardiness, Eriol's anxiety at their predicament was replaced by yet another confident grin. Now that Kaho had finally returned successful from her mission, they at last stood a true chance at victory. He turned back to once again face the cause of all their woes, only to find their foe now concentrating an excessive amount of his Void magic into a massive sphere of mist. It was at least twice the size of its creator, and it was still growing.

Unwilling to let this madman take the upper hand, Kaho stepped forward to show to Eriol the results of all of her hard work, "Those that would seek to protect life...!"

Her closing word was accented by the crashing clarion call of a familiar golden object held within her raised right hand: the Bell of the Moon.

"Come!"

In answer to the summons of the bell, a stream of blueish-black fire erupted from somewhere above them to completely envelop the sorcerer and his dark weaves of magic in a veil of twilight-colored energy. All eyes lifted towards the sky to sight its source: a flying black panther bearing black butterfly wings that were adorned with cerulean colored patterns all along the edges. But for as swiftly as Spinel had struck, he then ceased his assault and turned tail at the exact moment that he had gained Eadric's attention.

The old sorcerer split apart his super-sized sphere into two smaller, equally sized portions, and aimed one of the pair at the escaping Spinel. Yet he was never able to get the shot off, as a flurry of red-tinted crystalline projectiles rained down upon him from directly above his position. As the new target of his wrath, Ruby Moon was forced into some acrobatic maneuvers against both of Eadric's mist spheres as he lobbed both of them skyward, but up in the air the advantage was hers. She avoided both attacks without even trying, much to Eadric's howling protests, and then sped off to regroup with her guardian companion.

But where they regrouped to revealed yet another ally in this renewed struggle, as both Ruby and Spinel moved to protect the flanks of an enormous, majestic bird that was at _least_ as big as Spinel. Its wings and feathers were colored with the most deepest of reds and oranges that any of them had ever seen, accenting the arrow-shaped crest of white that marked its head. Silhouetted in between the glows of both the receding sun and the early-rising moon , it gave off the illusion that the whole of the bird had been set on fire.

The eyes of that regal bird sparkled for but a moment, before its feathers began to release short blasts of an almost vaporous stream of flowing white-hot flame with each beating flap of its giant wings, blanketing the whole of the shrine grounds within a fog-like inferno. Everything and everyone was covered away by the searing force of the phoenix-like bird's might, and yet the flames did nothing to injure those that were sincere in their justice. If anything, the combat-weary descendants and allies of Clow Reed could feel their vitality and vigor returning to them with a vengeance, the tribulations of the day being literally burned clean from their bodies.

Standing ignorant within the incinerating attack that was otherwise meant only for him, old man Eadric rose his hands high and shot out a missile-like mist sword straight at the phoenix bird, only to roar out madly as it banked to one side and dodged away with an unnatural grace. It then swooped low and fast to pester him with several swipes of its raptor-clawed feet, before speeding away to land itself atop the outstretched, leather-braced arm of a nearby, blonde-haired woman dressed in green and white robes. Considering the size of the bird, it was a wonder that it's handler's arm did not snap in half from all of the weight, but the woman held the bird aloft as easily as she would have a single feather.

The old man made to turn against the green-robed woman to conjure up another assault, but not before an aura of white magic managed to fly in lightning-quick and explode against his backside. He spun back about to sight its source, which had already emerged from a nearby cluster of trees. From the leaves and branches there appeared a well-built and balded young man dressed in almost pure black robes that were tied at the waist by a wide red sash. His outstretched hand was practically glowing with a powerful white light, as he held above it a hovering sphere of pure energy.

Taken to this new distraction, the sorcerer raised his arms to strike at another meaningless threat, and then was attacked yet again. This time, he was assailed by four thin streams of red, blue, green, and yellow, immediately recognizable as the purified energies of the four primordial elements. It was this surprise attack that gave them all the biggest amazement, and Syaoran in particular, for those that had unleashed the four waves of elemental energy were none other than his four elder sisters. Pushing amazement even further was the fact that his mother was standing with them, her heirloom fan glowing brightly above her as she infused her power directly into the four colored, marquise-cut crystals that her four daughters now wielded.

And after these few displays, yet more contenders for survival began to encroach upon the shrine grounds. The auras of magic surrounding the shrine continued to increase almost exponentially in size and brilliance for each moment that passed, as more and more people made their presences known. From rifts in space being forced open by archaic weaves, to various sudden flashes of multicolored light, and even to those that had chosen to arrive by traditional walking, an uncountable amount of people emerged onto the scene to eventually fully congest both the street beyond the shrine archway, as well as a portion of the shrine courtyard itself.

The plethora of skin colors and styles of clothing seemed to match up with every little corner of the modern world and the world of the past. Every little fairy tale and child's dream of magic that had ever been conceived, every single legend of myth and lore, was here. Even those that looked to have no place within the world of mysticism, such as people in extravagant business suits and even simple street clothes meant for everyday living, had gathered. It all was giving off the feeling that every single worldly nation, every culture, every concept of magic, all of it had appeared to resist the threat of the approaching darkness.

All of this still paled in comparison to Kaho's presence, however, and the red-haired woman soon found herself being confronted with an ecstatic Sakura, "Ms. Mizuki, when did you get back to Japan!?"

"Please, just Kaho is fine," she told her former student, "I'm not your teacher anymore. As for my return, it was just moments before now, thanks to the help of a certain pair of winged friends."

She indicated with a passing hand Eriol's two guardian familiars, as they alighted themselves to her one side. Yet as her hand passed along to also indicate her multitude of other traveling companions, so too did her eyes pass through the scenery before her, easily catching the familiar black-haired body that was lying atop the stone bench nearby. She did not need to move closer to tell what that body's condition was.

Kaho's remark was utterly somber, "However... it seems we have arrived, by far, too late..."

The returning reminder of Tomoyo's fate instantly destroyed whatever good mood Sakura had taken to, which made Kaho all the more determined to put to work the forces that she and Richard Quillen had gathered together. Her pale-pink eyes turned away from such sadness, instead locking onto the old shrouded sorcerer with a gaze that held both gentleness and ferocity, "The entirety of the world itself has come together, and together we shall end this threat once and for all, before more... tragedies... are allowed to occur."

Eadric began to laugh at those words with a minor amusement, although such bouts soon escalated into full cries of hysteria and madness. Such bellows of insanity forced Kaho to rush her next choice of words as she directed them straight to Sakura, "You will have the aid of the Earth herself at your backs. Do not fear what will come, but embrace what has befallen you as a means to persevere. We believe in you – all of you."

She finished her speech just as the sorcerer confronting them all at once ceased his cackling to release a powerful blast of wind with a wide arcing sweep of his arms. The very feel of the manipulated air around them quickly began to fill up with a corrupted, negative, destructive energy, as if those winds had been artificially constructed out of some ghastly machine. Right away, there began to build up a charge within that polluted air, which in effect was creating a kind of shell to surround the bulk of the shrine's inner courtyard. And inside of the few moments that this shell was being created, great gusts of yet more wind rose up from out of nowhere to encompass the exterior of the shell, creating a hurricane-like windstorm that worked to viciously buffet the recent newcomers away from the field of battle.

The female summoner used her great fire bird to lift herself above the fury and into more pure winds, safely putting herself out of reach of the sorcerer's power. Unfortunately, the black-robed monk, as well as the four Li sisters and the mistress of the Li clan, all found themselves being savagely pushed away by those uncontrolled gales. Seeing the disaster that was just waiting to be had, those multitudes of sorcerers and magicians that had yet to enter into battle withdrew themselves from the shrine proper before they, too, could be caught up within the tormenting winds.

When the last of the meddling insects had left his field of view, the old sorcerer snapped about on his original prey and clapped his hands together sharply. He began to enact a powerful spell that had, without anyone's notice, weaved itself throughout the corrupted air around them. A massive black cloud appeared within moments and swallowed him whole, leaving no trace of him whatsoever, before then moving swiftly towards where Sakura and the others stood in wait.

They all rushed away in a sudden panic to avoid contact with the black mist that was flying towards them, but in the end they were all still absorbed by its opaque mass that swirled and danced about to catch each of them up. It was as if the clouded mass was intelligent in its actions as it weaved about and swept directly into the chaotically chosen paths of its targets. Reios even attempted to dodge aside, diving away as fast as he could manage in the most open direction, though in the end the pitch-black cloud swirled about to chase him anyway. It picked him up off of the cement ground where he had landed, and absorbed him into its darkness as well.

With those three gone, the cloud dispersed without warning, leaving the courtyard interior to sit utterly vacant, save for Tomoyo's motionless body. Sakura's two guardians, her elder brother, and Syaoran had also remained behind, as well, but it all mattered little to Kaho. Their time to act was now, and they had very little time with which to act.

"Wait, where are they?" Syaoran shouted out, "What happened to them!?"

"They have been taken to their final duty," was all she would say to him, all the while walking swiftly towards the cherry tree at the center of the courtyard, though with a fluidic grace that should have been impossible considering her chosen speed. Coming within arm's reach of the trunk of the tree, she closed her eyes and concentrated her deepest thoughts into its wooden might, issuing out a silent prayer to those that were now on their own. She stood silent a moment more, despite her awareness that time was growing ever more short, then turned about to address all those that she had brought along with her.

She could not afford to wait for them to regather into the shrine and silence themselves, and instead used the power of her recreated bell to amplify her voice and send it out across the entire area, "Our forefathers were in error, so long ago, such that we of this time now find our lives in the hands of those who would favor the future generations of man. In rectification of this mistake, we must now _willingly_ offer our power up to them."

To those few in the regrouping crowd that could see her, she held up the Moon Bell to display to them her intent, "These bells were once created for a purpose: to ensure a successor to a great man's power; to ensure the survival of that power. It is thus for that reason – for that successor – that these bells have been brought back to life. Even from beyond the grave, Clow Reed plays his part for our survival. Where he could not freely stop this madness in his own time, for on his own even he was powerless against an absolute emptiness, we who are here today now stand a chance because his successors have an advantage that he did not. They are _not_ on their own. They have _us_!"

She then shot a mighty, bell-adorned fist to the sky, "My friends, gather yourselves and seek with me the bridge of darkness, so that they may see the light!"

Taking the lead, Kaho released the whole of her magic into that artifact, directing every last drop of her power through the golden shine of the bell and from there into the tree that would soon heed both her prayers and the prayers of all the world. Those that had gathered, and were yet continuing to gather, likewise raised their fists to the sky to color it with an endless assortment of staves, wands, swords, crystals of all colors, shapes, and cuts, and glowing hands when there was no object to be wielded. And from each raised source of power there flowed the rivers of magic, ranging from the most minute trickles of creeks and all the way up to the raging rivers of those who were tied to the elemental planes themselves. Kaho denied no single power, and mingled them all with her own as every person present placed themselves within the bells that she held above her.

To the four guardians present, this display of magic was, at the very least, awe-inspiring. Their enhanced abilities for magical perception were heightened rather sharply in comparison to their human counterparts, and so they could sense, even _see_ the thickness of the magical aura that was practically blanketing everything around them. It was creating the illusion of being encompassed within an overly massive rainbow. The sheer volume of such an enormous stream of power that was being given off was actually involuntarily pulling away what magic and life essence that the plants and smaller life forms around them could afford to contribute, adding that excess energy into the ocean-like pool of energy that the very world had created for them.

As they witnessed this, those remaining behind from the original group soon enough also sought to lend their powers, with Syaoran taking to the lead as he deformed his sword back into its spherical black charm. Sighting his mother, he stepped into line with the rest of his family, receiving a kind and proud smile from all of his relatives before he finally committed his descendant blood of Clow Reed into the collective might of the earth. To this, the four guardians also volunteered their strength, with the crystals inset into their armors and clothing glowing brightly as they exerted an effort to release into the Bell what energies they did not require to survive.

The world around them all continued to be bathed within both visible and invisible rainbow light, eventually forcing away the darkness of night in order to favour an artificial daylight that was visible even to the naked eye. Yet despite all of the shining auras that had effectively covered away the dark-blue skies of the approaching night, the sun, the moon, and the stars all continued to shine on brightly, secretly adding their own light into the flowing river of pure life essence.

The resulting concentration of this excessive amount of power eventually had the Moon Bells glowing with the intensity of several dozens of suns. And though it was blinding to the point of burning in effect, Kaho found herself unaffected by the light emitted by the bells, and easily found her way back towards the cherry tree that was directly behind her. Touching the bells to the bark of the wood, the ancient tree itself took to glowing with a powerful light as it drank in the entire mass of magical energy that had gathered around it, taking even the most minute of traces into its roots and sending it all into the deepest pores of the earth. The final result saw the whole of the awakened land around them emitting the radiant might of its own children, as well as the might of all the life upon that land, which soon began to concentrate itself into a singular point at Kaho's behest: the tear into nothingness that sat inside the shrine's archway.

Along with the last vestiges of power flowing across the bridge to darkness created by her bell, she sent along with it a desperate prayer.

_Good luck_.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	75. He Who Would Be God

_8-2a: He Who Would Be God_

The world was all black and darkness, as though nothing had ever existed. Yet then existence came into being, and she realized that she was within a dream. The same dream that she had had before, made of... wait. No, this was no mere dream. This was different. If anything, this was not a dream at all. There was no way it could have been, for she was now fully aware of her own physical existence, which was something that had never occurred to her within those other nightmares. No, this darkness was most certainly real, all too real, and she was completely caught up within it.

A movement to her right brought her attention to a distracted Eriol, allowing her to watch with some sense of curiously as he glanced about himself to gauge their non-existent surroundings. When he eventually noticed that she was there and staring at him, he asked of her, "Are you all right?"

"To be honest, I'm not so sure," she replied half-timidly, then glanced about for herself, "Where are we? This darkness, it's... it's not the same as before. It feels... emptier."

Eriol glanced about again before replying, "My guess is that... whatever that black cloud was, it enveloped us up and somehow shifted us into another world, a kind of 'pocket dimension' of sorts. This place is similar to that which his 'absorption' spell had relied upon, to be sure. But at the same time, it is far more akin to that of the true world from which that man is drawing his powers, much to the point that 'similar' should not even be a valid description. This is a realm that he likely created during his original imprisonment, designed to represent an actual limbo dimension. It is the next best thing to a true void. He probably believes that he will be unstoppable here, within his 'true' domain, and has taken us along with him to end our meddling."

Sakura continued to look about the place, unable to push away the eerie feeling of the vacancy that was surrounding her, "This place, it has his... 'presence'... floating all about it. It's really strange. It's almost like this reality isn't even supposed to be here."

Another sound, a groan, changed their point of attention towards someone nearby lying face down on the pitch black "ground" that they stood upon. The groan changed to a grunt as that person hefted himself up onto his hands and knees, leaning back to sit on his legs as he shook off the impact of his recent dive and subsequent landing.

Eriol crossed his arms as he casually observed Reios's motions, "You know, it probably would have grabbed at you regardless of what you did."

Reios stood to his feet and stared at Eriol with an annoyed side glance, "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. That's not why I did that, by the way."

Sarcastic gratitude aside, they noticed that he was holding onto something other than his silver sword. It was another silver-toned object that was made all too obvious to them when he turned to face them: Tomoyo's video camera. It would easily explain what it was that he had taken that foolish dive for, although their questions as to _why_ would still have to be voiced. So Sakura did just that.

"Why do you have that with you?" she asked cautiously.

"Tomoyo wouldn't be able to forgive herself if this critical moment were to be missed forever, so I'm going to take care of it for her," he explained matter-of-factly, then started looking the camera over closely as he mused to himself, "I'm surprised the thing isn't broken, actually. That was one hell of a drop it took..."

This got Sakura to thinking, since his words were suggesting that he thought Tomoyo to be still alive. The results of her thoughts allowed her to look at him only with a mix of confusion and, even more importantly, disgust.

"Did you get hit on the head, or something!?" Eriol asked heatedly, surprising them both with his bluntness. Reios merely looked at the black-haired man in disbelief, and opened his mouth to shoot back a witty retort, but instead growled menacingly as a notoriously familiar presence overtook their position.

His back was turned, so Reios could not even see what was approaching, but even as such, he did not really need to. The other two, however, could easily see their opponent approaching silently, literally gliding across the ground without a single step or rustling of black cloth. The black-cloaked old man stopped well short of their position, glaring at them through his cowl with an intensity that they could easily feel, if not actually see. Beyond that, there were no words or remarks along the lines of "I told you so". No sounds of any form, save for the soft hissing of his breathing. Only one intention came across to them through the silence of the void: he was out for blood.

Locked away within the sorcerer's private world as they were, they all knew that there was no chance of being able to go on the offensive without their magic. There was no chance of being able to stay on the defensive, for that matter, but that did not stop them from raising their transformed keys to their aid, preparing themselves as best they could for whatever assault the old man could come up with. They set themselves in for the long haul as best as they could, until they actually took notice of the lie. Their keys were still in their true forms.

The deafening crash of the Moon Bells broke through the darkness, causing the sorcerer to react impulsively with an animalistic howling of pure rage. The cry of those bells, a ringing that could have only been sent across the worlds by none other than Kaho Mizuki, somehow made the three of them fully aware that they still contained every essence of their magical powers. Not only that, but the connections to their cards and their celestial alignments still existed. They could not see the lights of their powers hanging above them, yet it was as if they could still _feel_ the moonbeams radiating softly out of the night, the rays of sunlight that had passed over the horizon, and the flickering multitude of speckled lights in the yet-to-be revealed night sky. These gentle constants filtered into their souls from beyond this bleak world, and from there empowered both their hearts and their courage.

They were at last on an equal footing with Eadric the Void scholar, and they wasted no time in preparing themselves for what they prayed would be the final confrontation.

"Not much time," Reios muttered to himself, and invoked one of his cards without hesitation. Behind him, a giant mirror formed into place, and through it passed his Mirror card to mimic the physical appearance of himself.

"I'll make sure you get a special mention for this," Reios informed his card, passing along the grey video camera with a sly grin as he spoke.

His twin image nodded sharply, "I won't disappoint you."

"What are you...?" Sakura started, clueless as to whatever purpose Reios had in mind. He said nothing to the matter, however, offering no further words other than a quick direction for Mirror to stay back from the fight. He retreated from the front lines dutifully, spinning about after gaining several paces with the camera already raised and active.

Sakura once again attempted to ask what Reios was planning, only to be interrupted by a threatening movement in front of them. Their sorcerous opponent was already moving to intercept the Mirror card, although they quickly made their own interception to prevent that. The old man stopped himself when his three opponents stepped up to bar his path, and he snarled menacingly at them for their interference.

Reios gave the sorcerer a curious look, "Is it just me, or does he seem... different?"

Sakura took notice to it, as well, "Yeah, you're right, now that I think about it. Ever since he came back that third time, he hasn't said a single word. Just a bunch of snarls and howling, like some wild animal."

"It is possible that our continued resistance has pushed him to the brink of his mental capacity," Eriol observed, "It may be that there is no sense of intelligence or even self-awareness left within him, of the scholar named Eadric that Clow Reed would have known. Between our continued victories against him, and the devouring Void that dwells inside of him, it is likely that we have collectively chipped away the last of his humanity, if he ever had any. Unfortunately, this will only serve to our disadvantage. He may act more unpredictably now than ever before."

To verify Eriol's prediction, the sorcerer leapt into the air above them without warning and proceeded to fly away into the black distance at an impossible speed. He was vanished from their sight before anyone could even think to react.

"He's getting away!" Sakura cried, immediately snatching at one of her cards in response.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's end this already!" Reios threw back, as both he and Eriol readied their own methods of pursuit.

"Fly!" came the invoking call from both Sakura and Reios simultaneously, causing their respective pink and golden angelic wings to appear on their backs.

They took to the air as Eriol activated his own card, "Dash!" causing his feet to be surrounded by a visible aura that blurred that part of his body, making it look as though he were running in place.

All was finalized for the chase through this man-made void, and with their hearts steeled for the end, they took off into the infinite darkness before them.

Their increased mobility, despite his disappearance into the black, soon proved to be too much for Eadric's ability of flight. They quickly found and overtook him, and from there they eased back their pace as they continued to chase after him, hoping to watch for a chance to strike. Yet their hesitation only invited a preemptive attack by the sorcerer, as his cloaked body turned about on them even as he continued to fly away from them. From his hands emerged a twin set of massive mist spheres, both of which he immediately launched towards his airborne pursuers.

Upon the ground, Eriol was saved from being targeted, and even those within the air found the spheres pathetically easy to dodge away from. Reios banked hard left to circle wide about the sorcerer, and resumed his original speed to overtake and then gain distance on his foe. Sakura, on the other hand, was contented enough to challenge him head on.

"I won't let you escape, and I won't let you win!" she shouted impulsively, "I can't let you take anyone else away from me, not like you did with my Tomoyo! Sword!!"

She did not even utilize the card, but rather only summoned forth its power through sheer force of will. Yet in the end it beckoned to her will all the same, reforming her wand into the deadly rapier that she had chosen to wield. Her wings brought themselves down hard to lift her high up into the black skies, carrying her directly over Eadric– no. Her wings did not carry her over a man named Eadric, the moniker of one who once called himself a human. No, what she sought to strike at now was nothing more than a demonic entity, a hell spawn foe who was more akin to the devil himself. Nothing else, she realized, would have such a disrespect for life as this one did.

When she had gained a sufficient lead on him, Sakura pulled hard up into the air to stop herself, spun herself about, and dropped fast out of the sky as she raised her sword above her. The demon stopped himself directly beneath the impending assault, and shot his arms out sharply towards the ground in a beckoning motion. From that point he formed up an arc-like shield of black mist to block her attack, only to have that mist be cut away effortlessly through the combination of both the card's and Sakura's rage.

Sakura landed heavily upon the ground in her follow-through, finding her sword swinging clean through both the air and the ground as the demon dodged away with his unnatural agility. He immediately countered with equal speed to uppercut her with a closed fist, connecting to the right side of her face and sending her Fly-assisted body sailing fast skyward. The Fly acted swiftly to recover her position on its own, holding Sakura aloft until she could come to her senses and take control of its power for herself again. Wiping a thin line of blood away from the corner of her mouth, she continued to float there as she shook off the ringing in her ears from the impact.

A shot of pure crimson light struck the demon clean in the back before he could act against the still-dazed Sakura, producing a mere annoyance in place of the expected damage that had been meant. The old man spun about on Eriol only to find nothing there, and then to experience another stream of energy striking at him from a completely different direction. That, too, was equally heeded, causing more anger than pain. Seeing a chance to force the demon's hand, Eriol utilized the power of his Dash to literally run circles about the old man, causing the hooded face to scan about in every direction as the demon attempted to keep up.

"Though we may be separate in being and belief, Clow Reed and I still have one thing in common: a respect for life! We cannot allow your plans to come to fruition, and I will personally see you destroyed for your crimes against all of nature!"

The demonic sorcerer then found himself being pelted by an endless barrage of bolts and streams of crimson energy from all directions, his superior evasion proven useless against such a tactic. Yet this only served to further enrage him, even as each shot was deflected harmlessly away by a secondary skin of thickened blackness. The demon's feral rage soon overtook his control over his own power, forcing him to unleash a massive, omnidirectional wave of Void energy that sent both Eriol and Sakura flying away in tumbles. In her winged state, Sakura was fortunate enough to have the vertical distance to recover, but Eriol found himself to be not so fortunate as he landed harshly to the ground several paces away.

"Power!"

The demon did not even have time to react to Reios's call, being that he was soon lying on the ground, recovering after a flying tackle from a pink child-like being. He glanced up in time to see her launch directly off of him and into the air, and from there she performed a forward roll to plummet back down onto him with both of her fists outstretched. Laid out as he was, there was no chance for evasion, yet still he escaped further injury by manipulating the gathering mists to swat Power away with a meager effort.

Power recovered quickly enough from the counterattack that had sent her skidding and bouncing across the ground, yet she held herself back from wanting to charge at the demon again. Instead, she she made a sly grin while she held his attention long enough to allow her master's friend the initiative, with her Sword held tightly in her hand as dropped her way in from a flying vertical dive. The point of Sakura's rapier stabbed straight through the ground where the demon had been only a moment before, only to effortlessly rip through that ground in a wide-arcing swing that came within an inch of severing the demon's cowled head clean off. Another stabbing thrust aimed at the torso, which also missed, had Sakura taking back to the skies to chase after the demonic entity that was now fleeing on foot into the darkness beyond.

Again the demon's speed proved useless against Sakura's abilities of flight, and it found itself once more within her range of attack. He leapt into the air to continue his retreat by levitation, and used his new position to shoot a trio set of spheres at the annoying girl that was constantly chasing him down. He glared menacingly as she spun and twirled her way around each attack even as she was invoking another card, and he bobbed away to the side to avoid it as she threw it into his path. But despite his successful evasion, his view of her was then unexpectedly cut away as his visual range tilted up and away from her and was followed by a sudden and painful crash landing to the ground. Yet even against the force with which he had so harshly struck down, he righted himself with a minimal effort and took note of the thick rope of plant vine that had tied itself to his left foot.

A flick of his wrist had the vines removed from him by a pair of mist-swords, both of which then shot skyward to take out the winged girl that still pursued him. Sakura's own Sword, fueled by her infinite desire for vengeance, cleaved the two mist-swords in half like feeble paper, yet the charging attack that would have followed such a feat was interrupted by a sphere of mist that she was immediately after forced to dodge. And then another, and then yet more. Try as she might to make a direct dive towards the old demon, her path was continually being blocked away by multiple attacks of spheres that she was always having to avoid. They not once allowed her to gain any ground in her advancement. Eventually the unending waves of attacks forced her own retreat, with the need to recover before she was overwhelmed breaking through to her common sense.

"Hey, jackass! My turn!"

The shouting from off in the distance, regardless of the change in languages, served to gain both the demon's attention and ire, drawing him away from the flying girl that was currently not a threat. Reios's wings of both feathers and steel were stretched out wide beside him to guide his direction unerringly, as he sped fast towards the demon before it could try to unleash its previous attack again. Yet unexpectedly, the demon tried no other tactic to counter the incoming steel, and merely stood his ground instead. Reios did happen to notice a thin length of mist starting to swirl about the demon's right hand, as if it were forming into something, but he ignored this in favor of a chance to strike.

Reios pulled his wings back hard to shoot skyward before plummeting back to the ground below with both swords cocked back to his left. If one of his blades could not strike the demon down, then the other would. Yet instead of finding flesh, his first strike found full resistance as the sorcerer deflected it away effortlessly with his own hand-held mist-sword. Stunned by this sudden change in tactics, in that the demon would choose direct confrontation for once, it left Reios stupefied enough to leave his off-hand katana hanging useless in the air behind him. By the time that he remembered to swing it down into the old man's head, the sorcerer had already brought back his arm in order to deflect the second attack. A flurry of swings and the clashing of steel ensued, with Reios somehow finding himself out-matched in both skill and speed. He soon found himself on the defensive against the feral demon on the ground below him, and was forced to land in order to better defend himself.

A defensive that soon turned into a near all-out retreat, the cause of which was a sight that Reios had prayed he would never see again. It was all he could do just to dodge his way around Sakura's black-bladed attacks, fearing the consequences of his cut should he attempt to put an end to her offensive against him. Then it was Syaoran who faced him, striking at him with that sword of pitch black mist even as Reios did his utmost to evade and counter without striking back in turn. With his fears of betrayal and bloodshed at the forefront of his mind, the oath sworn upon his sword stayed his hand and prevented his own retaliative assault. Nonetheless, he could see clearly through the illusions that were set before him, even as he deflected away a strike from Eriol's pitch-black sword, and suddenly he questioned at why he was holding back his full potential.

A potential that he was fully determined to utilize after having to witness Tomoyo's deft attempts at trying to take him out.

"Damned beast, you dare to use her face!?," he roared fiercely, "So be it! If I cannot control my fears, and if you insist on using them... _then I will destroy my fears!_"

In a rage-filled thrust that finally allowed him to stab Tomoyo's image clean through the chest with his katana, Reios used his momentary success to beat his wings down with great effort, escaping to a higher altitude and its relative safety from the stunned demon's uncannily masterful swordsmanship. From there, he flung his two swords to his sides while simultaneously invoking the power of the Float upon them, and then prepared yet another card for attack. Both of the swords then redirected their aim towards demon below, while Reios himself began to glow with an ethereal light from the power of his next spell.

"Strike at my enemy with the strength of the gods!"

He shot his chosen card out hard before him, releasing it not to his silver sword but instead willing it to transform into an imitation of his magic circle. The circle then split into two more copied versions of itself, which were repositioned to act like shields between the three sky-set objects and the demon below.

Both of the swords that were flanking Reios's sides all at once glowed with the same ethereal light as did his own body, a blinding glare that brought the injured demon to full distraction. Seeing their moment, Eriol shouted over to Sakura against the demon's incessant howling, "Engage him, _now_! All together!"

Eriol's golden staff began to spark violently with power, as he allowed his entire body to be taken in by the crimson glow of his own dark magic. He drew deeply upon both his own strength and the volunteered life essence of his own cards, and concentrated that energy into a focused point at the tip of his upheld staff. His magic circle flared brightly into existence beneath him in response to the manipulations of his magic, turning away from its natural golden hue and more into a pure silver just from the sheer volume of power that he was attempting to control.

With a loud grunt, he planted his staff directly into the center of his circle and took the entirety of the focused energy into his own hands, readying it to pierce through the howling demon's defenses at the right moment. Yet before he could act, and even through the increased effort of concentration that he was forced to put out to maintain such a high level of magic, he was able to witness the impossible.

He looked on as Sakura, with her eyes closed, began to chant, "Opposing powers of sea and flame, watching earth below cradle the dancing skies above! Cardinal forces forever in balance, come together as one to consume eternal darkness!"

Eriol watched in utter amazement, perhaps even fear, as Sakura's magic circle began to visibly change, its image being overlapped by another, different circle. Her own, star-set circle lifted away from the ground to slowly spin about her torso, while at the same time allowing the new circle to take its place. Yet this should have been impossible, for what had formed beneath her was Eriol's own magic circle, the one originally created by Clow Reed to represent the balancing forces of the sun and the moon. Then further still, above her there flared to life yet another circle, this one in representation of the sun in its full glory, with the nine solar planets set into the outer perimeter at each point of the twelve-point star within the circle. He recognized it as Reios's emblem, which was when he also recognized what Sakura was doing.

Whether she herself realized it or not, Sakura was utilizing all three of their primary celestial lights as her power source.

Fear then turned into awe unfathomable, once Eriol noticed that she was holding _four_ of her cards at the ready.

"Elements of creation, let this spirit return, yet allow it no peace! Let nature fill away its emptiness, to see it forever banished from time! Eternal void, begone!"

The entire world of darkness around them was then almost literally chased away, as the amassed powers of the real world erupted onto the scene from out of nowhere, enveloping the whole of the field within a rainbow light that forcefully infused itself into the spectacle that was now taking place.

Windy, Earthy, Firey, Watery – all four cards were released from Sakura's hand at once, and they all attacked as one with the full power of the skies and the rainbow light of the Earth's children backing them. Striking through and shattering all of the demon's black defenses with ease, they wholly encompassed the demon within nature's wrath and utterly devastated his attempt at a retaliation.

Reios's Force spell erupted violently from his hands and both of his two swords, colliding directly into the three magic circles that he had created. Amplified and redirected by those golden images, the effects of the three Force waves collided together and were combined to create a unified giant stream of searing light that then illuminated everything in its path. The Void sorcerer was covered away within the resultant massive discharge of Light magic before he could even make so much as a howl.

Eriol threw everything within view into a deep crimson glow, washing the rainbow-tinted world away within the pure red of the Moon's power before siphoning all of his spiritual might into a singular, microscopic point inside of the demon sorcerer himself. The siphoning effect of his spell drew even the rainbow light of the real world into the fray, directly into the very core of the defenseless and defeated Void sorcerer. From there, he allowed it to explode out under its own strength, releasing its near-infinite potential from its infinitesimal confinement to fill away what was left of the demon sorcerer's empty shell.

The result of their combined forces, while in the end not being enough to actually destroy the false world that they inhabited, dutifully served to mute away the demonic sorcerer's insane and incessant howling. It would have been made obvious to anyone, even against the impenetrable light of the residual energy that was still swirling about the demon's last known position, that he had been completely vaporized by the same magicks that he had sought to claim and control for himself.

Or at least, it _would_ have been made obvious, except for the fact that those responsible for his demise had also been caught up within their own assault, simply to be washed away by the absoluteness of their own light.

Had any creature remained within that dark domain to bear witness to it, the feeling of time that then passed between the resultant explosion of that divine light and the clearing of said light to leave only darkness once more would have been insurmountably uncountable. And then, when all that remained was darkness forever more, it was all that could have possibly been seen for every direction that one could have looked to.

The void world that the old man Eadric had created now, at long last, knew solitude once again.


	76. Grieve

_8-2b: Grievances_

Had any creature remained within that dark domain to bear witness to it, the feeling of time that then passed between the resultant explosion of that divine light and the clearing of said light to leave only darkness once more would have been insurmountably uncountable. And then, when all that remained was darkness forever more, it was all that could have possibly been seen for every direction that one could have looked to.

The void world that the old man Eadric had created now, at long last, knew solitude once again.

...

...

Well, almost.

"Whew, that was close."

The sound of a card being revoked from action rang out vividly after the female voice that had broken that precious solitude, revealing three humanoid forms as they stepped away from a fading, secondary darkness.

"Pretty ingenious, there," Reios remarked with an impressed tone, "using your Shadow card to reflect the explosion of light."

"The Shadow card was created with the ability to contain things within its cloak," Eriol explained to them, "yet I never would have thought of inverting its magic to keep things _out_ of that containment. Very well played, Sakura."

Sakura grinned at the two, though mostly out of the embarrassment of attention, and scratched at her head lightly to try and hide away what was probably a very red-tinted face, "I thought, since that Eadric person had made this fake world for himself, that maybe I could do the same and hide us away from the backlash of our own attacks."

It only took her a few seconds to get over this, though, when a new thought crossed her mind, "Wait, where is he? Did we actually win this time?"

They all looked about themselves for signs of Eadric's survival, with each of them aware that they had unwisely let their own guards down just now. Failing that spot check, they then awaited the dark swirling gateway that would hail his inevitable return. Or rather, all except Eriol was waiting, as he was too busy focusing his sixth sense on the general area around them.

His facial expression following such an act hinted at a mix of answers that he soon put to words, "I believe that we, in effect, did defeat him. I do not sense any other life signs in this place, other than ourselves. However, his power still remains, which also means that he could still be around here somewhere, hiding."

"His power?" Reios asked, "You mean, like an aura or something?"

"Like one of the spirits?" Sakura added in.

Eriol found himself authentically surprised as to what they were inferring, and after taking a moment to consider it, he actually thought such a scenario to be possible. He looked far above them into yet more of the blackness that surrounded them, finally understanding the power that encompassed them, and of what he had felt of it when they had first arrived.

"You might be on to something," Eriol replied, "If what I initially felt about this place is right, then it would make sense. This false world is not some kind of Void limbo, or even a sub-dimension created by our former foe, now that I think about it. Rather, it is literally the spirit of that same foe. He drew us into a portion of himself to try and seal away our strengths, or perhaps even steal them for his own use. Though, thanks to Kaho's intervention, we were able to work around that."

Eriol looked around one more time to assure himself of his theory before finishing his explanation, "We are actually encased inside of his inner life force – his soul!"

"Right, I don't like the sound of that," Reios muttered against Eriol's supposed fascination, "So how do we get out?"

Sakura raised a finger to make a point, "If it's an aura, like the spirits from before, maybe we have to destroy it or seal it away?"

Eriol shook his head, "No, destroying it won't work. This power that we are contained within, while in essence being the remainder of that sorcerer's life force, has been forcibly reshaped into a facsimile of the Void by that very same Void. You cannot destroy something that is not supposed to exist in the first place, which is quite the convenient paradox. Yet you may be right in that we could probably 'seal' it away, thereby altering its meaning within reality. From there, it would become a more 'tangible' emptiness, and would hold a temporary meaning to our existence. If it was something like that, then it very well _could_ be destroyed."

Sakura thought that she had properly understood Eriol's reasoning, but one thing was still bugging her, "Okay. But how do we seal away something so big?"

"First, we have to nullify its power," Eriol surmised, glancing around him again, "Once we have done that, we can make our escape and deal with it from our own world."

"And how do we do _that_?" Reios asked impatiently, "This is a lot of darkness to 'nullify', as you put it."

"By using a power that opposes darkness!" Sakura replied cheerfully, an idea already in her head. Truthfully, Eriol had come up with such a method just moments after realizing the true reality of what encompassed them, so when Sakura made them all aware of their plan of attack, he nodded affirmatively at her.

Within the span of only a couple heartbeats, their respective Light cards were brought out, summoned, and sent speeding off into the distance, forming up into triangular points so as to cover as much ground as possible. The three cards raced away from their masters, as ordered, fading further and further into the darkness in the distance until they became nothing more than little speckles of tiny stars. They then continued to travel further still, until even their infinitely pure light was completely absorbed into the darkness.

The coming of their efforts seemed anticlimactic in nature, and it eventually had Reios pacing about with an even greater impatience. An impatience which soon enough overtook him, "How long do you think they'll be?"

A soft boom shot over them from three separate directions simultaneously, giving Eriol his reason to answer, "Any time now."

It was only a short moment afterwards that they were once again surrounded by a searing wave of white Light.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

The blinding light that had shot out from the cherry tree eventually died away, allowing Kaho's eyes to focus upon the cause of such a sudden flare. It was with a profound sense of relief that she found Eriol and the others to be standing in front of that tree, seemingly unharmed and apparently successful in their task.

"Welcome back–," was all she could say, for her attention was soon taken by something that was directly behind those three. They turned for themselves to see what it was that had so abruptly taken Kaho's notice only to find a crystalline orb floating behind them. It was much like the ones that they had found after sealing away the elemental spirits, yet at the same time it was also so completely different. This orb, as opposed to the colorful element-infused ones from before, was of the purest black that any of them had ever seen, and it was also exerting the same attributes as had the spacial tear that had appeared beneath the shrine's archway. While they could plainly see that it was there, at the same time it was as if their minds simply refused to register its presence.

Sakura reached out cautiously to grab at it, realizing as she did so that she probably should not even be touching it at all, though her fingers made contact with its surface regardless. But rather than finding physical contact as she had been expecting, instead she found her fingers to be covered in a thin black soot as they passed straight through the crystal's surface. A crystal which then completely fell away from sight, crumbling into soot and dust and then into complete nothingness along with the blackness that had once covered her fingers, as if none of it had never even existed.

She instinctively turned to Eriol for an explanation, to which he answered, "Recall how I said that Eadric's soul, once sealed, would be existent solely as a tangible emptiness. Such a thing had no right to exist in a world of substance, and so it was abolished."

His answer was somewhat cryptic in nature, yet she accepted it all the same. What truly mattered was that the threat that had been placed upon them was finally and truthfully eliminated. To Sakura and her friends, and verily to the entirety of the world around them, there would be no end to life. Or at least, not within their foreseeable future.

"Thank you for your efforts," Reios offered from behind them, bringing their attention over to an exchange between himself and his Mirror image that had just handed back Tomoyo's video camera.

"My pleasure that I could help," the card replied, "I was far enough away from the final explosion that I got a pretty cool panoramic shot of the action. I think that you'll like how it turned out, so please make good use of it!"

Reios could only chuckle softly at his card's enthusiasm, even as it dissolved away into an ethereal mist and then into its sealed form. He looked back to the others as he pocketed the card, his soft smile turning back to a more solemn tone as he purposefully ignored all of the sanity-questioning eyes that were understandably aimed at him. Instead, he chose to silently redirect his own attention, and in turn the eyes of those around him, towards the place at which laid both the true strength and ultimate tragedy within their victory.

Sakura's awareness of anyone around her was lost the instant her own eyes registered Tomoyo's still-smiling features, much to the point that she completely ignored Syaoran's warm and comforting hand upon her back as he returned dutifully to her side. And then, before she was even aware of it, she had herself kneeling down beside that stone bench with Tomoyo's cold and lifeless hand held within her own. It was shocking for her to feel absolutely no warmth within those fingers, further reinforcing the already devastating idea that Tomoyo was gone. Yet she, surprisingly, no longer felt any kind of remorse or sadness at her loss, even though she knew she would be continually mourning that loss for the next several days, if not weeks to come. Rather, she felt only the smallest amount of fulfillment, knowing somewhere extremely deep within her heart and soul that Tomoyo's death had not been in vain.

"We did it," she whispered silently, "We managed to stop him, and I know that it was all because of the strength that you had given us. I truly believe that you somehow gave us the courage to keep going, that you were watching over us through all of it, so.... thank you, Tomoyo... for being there for me... for us..."

She leaned forward until her forehead was cradled against the cold gray cement of the bench, where a cool evening breeze sailing across her face finally allowed her to notice the wetness of the tears that had been flowing since long before she had even knelt down. Yet even then, for a reason that forever remained beyond her, she never stopped smiling.

"Thank you..."

* * *

_End, Chapter 8_


	77. Questioning Fate

**Chapter 9 – The True Purpose  


* * *

**

_  
9-1: Questioning Fate_

Sakura's awareness of anyone around her was lost the instant her own eyes registered Tomoyo's still-smiling features, and before she knew it she had herself kneeling down beside the bench with Tomoyo's cold and lifeless hand held within her own. It was shocking for her to feel absolutely no warmth within those fingers, further reinforcing the already devastating idea that Tomoyo was gone. Yet she, surprisingly, no longer felt any kind of remorse or sadness at her loss, even though she knew she would be continually mourning that loss for the next several days, if not weeks to come. Rather, she felt only the smallest amount of fulfillment, knowing somewhere extremely deep within her heart and soul that Tomoyo's death had not been in vain.

"We did it," she whispered silently, "We managed to stop him, and I know that it was all because of the strength that you had given us. I truly believe that you somehow gave us the courage to keep going, that you were watching over us through all of it, so.... thank you, Tomoyo... for being there for me... for us..."

She leaned forward until her forehead was cradled against the cold gray cement of the bench, where a cool evening breeze sailing across her face finally allowed her to notice the wetness of the tears that had been flowing since long before she had even knelt down. Yet even then, for a reason that forever remained beyond her, she never stopped smiling.

"Thank you..."

The desire to keep this moment began to grow within her, and so she remained there for a time, motionless, never letting go of Tomoyo's hand. It was not as if she still delighted in being able to hold her close, not like this. But all the same, Sakura still chose to take in some minute form of pleasure from it all. It was because she knew that, once the night was over, once they were forced to move on with their lives, she would likely never get this chance ever again. So as meaningless as she knew it to be by this point, she chose to spend as much time with Tomoyo as she could bear to without losing herself further into the depression of anguish and loss.

"But then..."

Yet she found herself thinking far beyond what she had wanted to, and she soon began to consider a sequence of thoughts that were now pestering her to the point of being beyond her control to silence. She slowly took to her feet, though she kept her back to those that were still waiting on her, and spoke her thoughts, "But then, what purpose did it serve? Why is it that Tomoyo, of all people, had to die? What purpose did that serve!?"

Her last words were practically shouted as she spun about to demand an answer from her friends, giving rise to the release of yet more emotions which she quickly found herself immersed within. She hated it, she truly did, that she could not stop crying about it. Most especially because it felt as though she should have cried herself all the way to sleep by now, as it was. What made it worse was that she could not get over the thought that Tomoyo's death had been completely and utterly meaningless, regardless of whatever else she had already thought of or otherwise wanted to think of it.

"It's always been her," she muttered quietly, "Whenever there was trouble, it always went after _her_. She had nothing to do with _any_ of it, and she was still the one that had to pay for my mistakes, my involvement. Copied by the Song card, her music stolen by the Voice card... locked away by Eriol's basketball, then the Water spirit's nightmare at the beach! And now... this. It's always her. Someone, please, tell me, why did it always have to be her!?"

"Perhaps..." Kaho muttered, stalling as she carefully considered her words, "Perhaps it was for the sole purpose of your success that she was targeted. Her tragedy and death would have sewn the seeds of resolution into you, making your efforts unstoppable."

The very thought that Kaho, of all people, could speak such words, and regardless of whether or not they were spoken with good intent, was something that Sakura found hard to accept. The very meaning behind such a thought was appalling, to say the least.

"How can you say that!?" she shouted back, unable to retain her anger or disgust, "How can you just simplify it all so easily!?"

Kaho's reply was direct and, for someone like her to Sakura's point of view, unnaturally cold, "Because you yourself wished it to be that way."

"No," Reios intoned, shaking his head, "If that's the case, then you're both wrong. There is no purpose to forcefully taking someone's life when it is not forfeit. There never will be. The only crime I could possibly think of that Tomoyo would have been guilty for, is that she was not fully truthful of her feelings to those around her. I hardly think that this would make her forfeit. No, I don't care what anyone wants to believe, and I don't care if a damn prophecy said it would happen. What was done to her was utterly wrong. She didn't deserve it at all.

"And before you even _try_ to say anything!" he half-shouted, making a point to direct his words straight at Kaho, "I _know_ we could have succeeded, with or without her death looming over us."

"What makes it even worse," Eriol added, stepping up to take Sakura's side in the argument, "is how Eadric referred to it as a 'pure death'. What he performed on her was a kind of 'siphoning' magic, a spell that drains the target of its inner essence and transfer it to a specified container, be it into the spell caster themselves or into a secondary output. What this ultimately means is that not only has Tomoyo been killed in a physical sense, but her immortal soul has also been lost as well. I can sense even now that the spiritual container within her body has been crudely shattered open, its bond with its creator all but lost. Her body's ties to the origin of all was severed _before _she was killed, and all to ensure that her soul would not return to its rightful home within nature's embrace. It is a fate that not even the most hardened of criminals of our world deserve: to be isolated away in eternity, never again to see a new chance at life."

This was a point that Sakura had not thought to realize, and mostly because it was one that she did not truly understand. But she still knew the underlying basics of what Eriol was trying to get at, and after having heard it spoken aloud, she now understood that this singular concept is what was instinctively chaining her so tightly to her inner despair over Tomoyo's death.

As she had once been taught by Eriol, the multitude of souls that lived within this world were awakened, placed into a physical body and given life, and were let loose to experience that life. Once these physical lives were expended, these souls would then be returned to nature's caretaker, the soul of the planet itself, in order to sleep and be revitalized. With the memories of their past lives safely stored away within nature's embrace, they would then be set loose once again to experience such wonders anew, to live out completely different lives from before. It was the cycle of reincarnation, and it was by this method that Clow Reed had ensured the continued survival of his memory through Eriol, by manipulating his spiritual energy so that Eriol would keep the mental aspect of his previous life, instead of losing it all to nature's care.

Based on all of that, and from what little she had understood just now of Eriol's words about "siphon spells" and "pure deaths", it was to be that Tomoyo would never have such a chance ever again, for her soul had been denied its return trip back into nature's embrace.

Even if Sakura were to use her magic and some day reincarnate herself in the same fashion as Clow Reed had done, she would never be allowed to see Tomoyo ever again.

Unnoticed behind her by anyone except Syaoran, Reios had pulled a card out of his pocket and was staring at it intently to the point of being completely ignorant of anything around him. Sneaking his way unnoticed around to Reios's backside, Syaoran curiously shifted his view to more closely see what was more important than the consequences of the death of a dear friend. Yet try as he might to see over Reios's shoulder, Syaoran could only discern the card's image: a diminutive figure clothed in flowing white robes, with four wings pointing to each corner of the rectangular image picture. The relatively more important detail, the name of the card, was unfortunately hidden away by Reios's thumb.

Syaoran looked up to glance at Reios himself, but was continually ignored just like everything else had been up to that point. But it did seem like Reios had come to some kind of decision, and he soon voiced it.

"Then let's bring her back."

That gained everybody's attention for sure, with all eyes promptly turning towards him to prove it. He glanced to his card one more time before turning it around for everyone to see: the same angel-like form appeared that Syaoran had seen before, a four-winged female child, except that this time its name was revealed to them as well: "the Life".

He added onto his suggestion with a straight face, "If we can bring her back, she won't have to suffer such a fate."

"What is...?" Sakura started to ask, staring at the card that he held as though it were some form of a bad joke. She knew very well that it was impossible to bring someone back from the dead. This life lesson had been ingrained into her mind through various means time and time again. Though, to be sure, Reios's sudden words and honest belief in his own plan had sparked such a hope within her as to make her seriously consider it as possible. But there was something else, as well. Something that she was feeling from the card that he now held. A feeling of familiarity from the power that it was resonating.

"From what the others told me... that is, from what my other cards explained to me," Reios stated, turning the card back to glance at it again for a third time, "this is a negative-energy card that keeps the combined powers of my entire set of positive-energy cards in balance. But whatever it's purpose truly is, it just might be powerful enough to do what I think it can. Plus, if you and Eriol have similarly-designed cards, we could combine their powers to make it more effective."

Before anyone had even seen him move, Eriol had drawn up one of his own cards so as to examine it more closely. He glared into its features with a new kind of perception, almost as if he had come to some kind of understanding. He frowning deeply as he attempted to come to terms with the as yet mistrusted concepts before him, his eyebrows creasing inwards as thoughts unknown to any other man alive either confounded or overwhelmed him. Or both.

He eventually looked up to the card that Reios held, and spoke, "It is the law of nature that magic cannot hold sway over life and death. Such is the domain of nature, of gods, and they alone. That your card symbolizes the power of Life is one thing, but the use you intend to put it to is completely another. It is very much impossible to bring someone back from the dead. And yet..."

Sakura pulled her own 'negative energy' card, the Hope, out from her pocket where the remainder of her cards now slept. Simply looking at it again brought back a flood of memories, both wondrous and distressing, as it had been the efforts of sealing and retrieving this card that had brought her together with her first love. So despite Eriol's words just now, Reios's suggestion had her thinking: was there even the smallest of chances that it could bring her back together with her second love?

"And yet?" Reios repeated, insisting upon Eriol's unfinished theory.

"And yet... I know that there is no such thing as coincidence," Eriol finished, facing his own card outwards to reveal its image and power: a young boy clothed in flowing robes. A near equivalent to Reios's card image, except that this one was swathed in cloths of pure black, the same color as its four wings. The perfect mirror image to Reios's card, otherwise, if but for one other difference. Eriol's card was marked as "the Death".

He did not lift his eyes away from it even as he continued to speak, "That Tomoyo's soul was given a 'pure death' remains true. Her spirit has been sent far away from this world, to some other place that remains unknown to us, but I can surmise that it was probably sent into the Void. Or rather, the true Void that lies between dimensions, instead of the false world of emptiness that Eadric had several times created for us. Eadric had wanted to steal the spiritual energy of this entire world for himself, and the emptiness that lays beyond time and space would be the perfect place to store it. Yet the human spirit is not so easily destroyed, even in death absolute. She may yet continue to survive where she is now, and now that these three cards have been made aware to us... there may yet be a chance."

That Eriol was now admitting to possibly having been wrong about the laws of nature was another spark of hope for Sakura, to say nothing of his indications of actually wanting to try and right this wrong. Mimicking the others, she turned her Hope card about for everyone to see. The white robes that the child on her card wore, which were longer than the card's boundaries could display, completely covered the majority of the image. This difference immediately set it apart from the other two cards that Reios and Eriol held. Another notably major difference between hers and theirs was the fact that her card still held the image of a winged heart, the original form of the unnamed card that Sakura had created for herself. The other two cards were bereft of such additions.

"Yet you cannot expect z'ese toys to overrule zee very laws of Mother Nature herself."

The female voice rang out clearly from within the crowd of still-dispersing magicians and sorcerers, a noticeable Russian accent threaded throughout the Japanese words that it spoke. The woman to whom the voice belonged soon emerged from the crowd to present herself as a lean-figured five-foot-five with dirty-blonde hair that was wearing a thin-fabric, two-piece green-blouse and black-skirt dress. Her face and eyes were set into a look that insisted that she knew what she was talking about.

"And you are?" Syaoran asked defensively.

"Her name is Anfisa Rokovskaya," Kaho replied for the woman, articulating the name carefully into Japanese syllables, "She is a friend of mine from England, though she is originally from Russia. We went to the same college together for our senior year, and we have kept in touch with each other even after graduation. She is a rather pronounced sorceress within our part of the community."

This Anfisa nodded in confirmation of what had been said, "A sorceress under zee servitude of zee grand element of Earth, to be more precise. You should trust me ven I say zat your little plan will not work. Mother Nature herself tells me of her laws, and they state clearly zat to bring back a life to its former self is quite beyond impossible."

Reios held up his Life card for the two women to see, "Okay, then explain this one."

He nodded knowingly in conjunction with his growing grin when Anfisa became abruptly speechless against his query. Satisfied that he had won their little argument, he turned his back on them to bring the discussion back to his own peers.

But with the young man's somewhat unnerving gaze taken off of her, Anfisa made to renew her own assault, "You cannot seriously think zat your antics will work? I will admit to not knowing zee full extent of zee spell zat you hold, but for you to attempt vat I know you want? It would mean certain destruction for the very soul zat you are now trying to save! These cards are representing potential powers zat defy zee very laws of magic. Zeir use could hold grave consequences!"

Reios took this into deep consideration, his eyes closing up so that his thoughts would not be interrupted. Even so, he still found himself turning about to his one side, his reopened gaze locking onto Tomoyo's motionless yet smiling form as it continued to lay there on the stone bench. At that point, the words that Anfisa had just offered up were rendered meaningless, and mostly for the fact that she had no right to even be involved, in his opinion. He cast about for opinions, but saw nothing within the looks that Sakura and Eriol gave him that differed from his own feelings. Regardless of the risks, this was something that they had to try. This was something that they wanted to do.

Anfisa, on the other hand, correctly believed that she was being ignored. Cocksure as she was in her belief of nature's will, she started her way with a defiant stride towards the three, wrenching her way out of Kaho's grasp when the red-headed woman attempted to restrain her high-strung Russian friend.

Anfisa shook a clenched fist at Reios's backside, "So you would condemn your friend to an eternal life of wandering and abandonment, just to satisfy your own curiosity!?"

Reios, and even Sakura, looked to the woman with a meaningful side glance before proceeding with Eriol towards the cherry tree at the center of the shrine's main walkway. Their pair of looks had essentially told her to stay away, which only served to infuriate Anfisa to no end. This further act of ignorance was the last straw, causing her to fly into a red-faced fury. In just a few more steps, she caught up with them and latched a hand onto Reios's shoulder, "Will you not listen to reason!?"

Her next act was to just barely dodge a shoulder tackle from Reios, only to find herself a mere finger's width away from the point of his katana. The act of Reios having drawn his blade was inhumanly fast to the point that even Kerberos's feline vision almost could not keep up with the movements. By the time that anyone had noticed or even heard that Reios had drawn his weapon, he was already poised to pierce Anfisa straight through the throat, and he did not look like he was going to back down any time soon. Every single person that was still in attendance stood their ground, not even drawing a breath for fear that they would be the catalyst that would force Reios into action.

Anfisa held her own breath, as well, albeit for more 'personal' reasons. Time slowed down to a crawl as she started to fear for her life, placed as it now was upon the needle-sharp point of a vengeful blade. She could see it within those flaming brown eyes, the ones that held the length of steel against her. There was no remorse, nor any single shred of forgiveness that she could detect. Only a pure and undeniable rage from having his purpose questioned. It was something that she, in a way, could affiliate with. Often it was that she had found herself in similar situations, and on both sides of the proverbial table at that. Yet never before had she encountered a determination such as the kind that these three youths were displaying. The lengths that these three seemed to be willing to go to was, all by itself, the most frightening thing in the world to her.

Reios held his pose for a moment more before dropping his katana back to the ground, taking in a deep breath to calm himself. Yet still his gaze remained upon her to emphasize the meaning of his words, "Attempt to interfere again and I will not be so hesitant."

His words surprised even those that were behind him, those two who would have known him best out of anyone present. It was one thing to know that Reios was extremely defensive when it came to those he cared for, and for Tomoyo in particular now that his feelings were known to them. But to see him actually threaten someone's life for just that purpose... it left all of them wanting for words to describe it.

"Besides," he continued, turning his back to Anfisa again as he replaced his katana to its home, "regardless of whether or not our actions would cause her soul to become lost and abandoned, it doesn't change the fact that this is already the case. I should think that 'your' Mother Earth would be _glad_ for what we're about to try, for it has lost one of its beloved children just as we have all lost a dear friend."

Her inner voice told her to resist, but Anfisa could not deny the logic that she was hearing. It was not long before she found herself quietly standing beside Kaho, having unknowingly stepped away from the trio of teenagers. She was somehow amazed, yet at the same time was completely understanding, of the fact that she had given up on the argument.

With Reios having turned, however, she failed to notice something that would have sealed her thoughts into place, even as he moved to clear it away: a single tear escaping from his eye. A tear that he swore would be his last.

"Alright, barring any further... interruptions," Reios added dryly, "what's the best way to proceed?"

Eriol leaned his back against the tree, "That will be the hard part. You see, Clow Reed had never really intended for the original balancing Card, now the Hope card under Sakura's name, to actively be used. The magnitude of the negative energy that it was designed to hold was far too dangerous even for someone of his level of expertise to safely manage. Its only purpose was to keep the multiple positive energy signals of the other fifty-two Clow Cards in check.

"To prevent its potential misuse, he had sealed away that card deep underneath his old mansion here in Japan, and had used the entire building itself as the physical component of a giant sealing spell. And regardless of the fact that the magical component of that seal had been weakened over time by the reincarnation of the original Clow Cards, not to mention that the mansion itself was soon after demolished, the Hope card eventually managed to escape a seal that had been created by Clow Reed himself. This is how powerful all three of them will be, individually.

"If we are going to use their power, we can only pray that they will understand our wishes and act accordingly."

"Well then," Kaho put in, somehow having approached without being noticed, "why not borrow the power that sleeps within the tree? I'm sure the shrine priest wouldn't mind."

She did not know what kind of help that the tree could offer, but Sakura was glad for the offer, all the same, "Yeah, we'll do that."

Kaho smiled softly, "Then it would be better for Ms. Daidouji to be closer to the tree, so that it can lend its own power to her as well."

Syaoran, as the closest person in proximity to Tomoyo, did not even need to be told, and took up Tomoyo's body with all possible care. From there he moved with gingerly steps towards the tree's massive trunk, and set her down upon the ground to be cradled by a pair of roots that were each as thick as a child's body. He just as softly back-stepped out of the way when he was done, moving to stand beside Kaho and Anfisa as three of the world's most powerful sorcerers readied themselves to defy the laws of reality itself.

Sakura looked to Reios at her left, and then to Eriol on her right, gladly taking in the spiritual and mental support that they were all weaving for one another. And in that moment, she noticed a familiarity within the scene that she now found herself in, and instinctively related it to her dreams. More specifically, she recalled the positions of the three books as they had appeared before her within the very first dream that had started all of this. And then, from within the furthest recesses of her mind, she suddenly realized that she had seen this exact moment coming. Just one more regret that would strengthen her resolve to repair all the damage that had been done.

"Are we ready?" she asked quietly.

"We will summon the cards all together, at the same time," Eriol informed them, "Do not hesitate."

Reios smiled to himself, "Let's bring her home."

As one, they faced Tomoyo's silent and unmoving body, and placed their final prayers within their respective cards. As one, they lifted the cards towards the leaves of the cherry tree, allowing the three sealed beings to float freely in the air above them. As one, they raised up their instruments of invocation, calling into play powers that were far beyond their comprehension.

As one, their eyes fell vacant, when their minds were pulled away from their earthly bodies and sent off into emptiness.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	78. The Hope

_9-2: The Hope_

She awakened within perpetual darkness, and immediately wondered if she was perhaps, once again, within her dreams. She could automatically sense that the world around her was not real, and that whatever had summoned her here had created it solely for the purpose of meeting her. Then again, her own existence in this world _was_ real, which again countered the idea that this desolate place was indeed a part of her dreams. She could feel herself standing there, and she could hear her own breathing against the purity of the silence around her. She was self-aware and in full control, denying any and all possibility of this being a dream.

Through this, she surmised that perhaps she was within a world created by her Hope card. That was the last thing that she remembered doing. As soon as she came to this conclusion, she felt a strong familiarity resonate out from the darkness around her. She now understood that it was not an infinite darkness that surrounded her, but an infinite nothingness. She was within another dimensional void, much like the one that her defeated enemy Eadric had created to entrap herself and her friends. Yet this one felt... different. Even against all the multiple paradoxes, the ones of existence versus non-existence that were sending her senses reeling, she could feel neither malice nor deceitful intent marking her life. Rather, she felt a sense of loyalty being directed towards her, and maybe even a gentle kindness as well. It was almost heartwarming, in a way.

Sakura glanced about herself quickly, next wondering where her card actually was. If this was truly a world of its making, it should have been here along with her. Or at the least, it should have been making itself detectable. Yet even so, her senses still felt only the emptiness of the void around her, while her eyes only claimed more and more of the infinite darkness beyond. After a frenzied moment of panicked searching, she just plain stopped looking. She chose instead to close her eyes and wait patiently, blocking out the unease of her environment in favor of a calmness from within.

Idly her right hand moved, unknowingly stretching across her side towards the pocket that held the rest of her cards. An uncontrollable and instinctual act of comfort, perhaps, but it was one that sparked only a further sense of panic. Instead of a thin padding within that pocket, as had been expected, she felt only more emptiness, all too similar to that which she was now surrounded in. Her cards were gone.

"Our friends are safe. Do not worry."

The familiar, dual-toned voice echoed gently through the darkness without origin or direction, yet Sakura's attention and gaze somehow found itself pinpointing the source of that voice on the first try. She recognized it immediately as belonging to her Hope card, a fact that verified itself moments later when that same little girl materialized into view right in front of her. The dark gray wings that stretched from the back of the little girl's head flapped slowly once, then settled in behind her flowing white gown as she took to the ground with deliberately slow movements.

Hope smiled kindly to Sakura, as one would smile to a dear friend, "Our friends are safe, and remain by your side in the true world. Their positive influence could not safely exist within this world of negativity, for this world is the essence of my power. Our powers would cancel each other out, and we would all cease to exist. So it is that to avoid such a fate, I have drawn only your mind here, leaving your physical body and belongings behind in the real world."

Even through Hope's smile, Sakura still felt an unnerving quality about her manifested card. It was something about those eyes that she could not quite shake off. They were so full of emotion and life, and yet at the same time completely devoid of any material essence so as to make them seem all but pointless. It was this, even more so than the fact that this same card had once come so unbearably close to destroying her life, that began to frighten her. It seemed that she still feared the emptiness that had wanted, on more than one occasion, to envelop her completely. An emptiness that still ran rampant within those eyes.

Hope, who was by now a good two feet shorter than Sakura when compared to their first encounter those few years ago, looked deep into her mistress's eyes and easily saw this fear, and even felt it. She approached Sakura with graceful steps, stopping just close enough to be within arm's reach, and held her child-like arms up before before her mistress, her hands held palm up in a gesture of greeting.

Hope maintained her gentle smile, "Do not fear, my mistress. My power will not harm you anymore."

With the closing of the distance between herself and her card, Sakura was able to notice something else within Hope's vacant eyes. The shimmering of another, more specific emotion, she thought. It was almost as if a river of sadness flowed within the pair of pale gray that she was staring into. She knew intuitively that the card was also grieving for the losses that Sakura had suffered, for in a way these losses affected Hope herself as well.

Before she knew what she was doing, Sakura had taken Hope's hands into her own, to share with it the pains of her loss through the bond that existed between the master and the cards. To her, it was both extremely comforting and agonizingly depressing at the same time, but the company was welcome regardless.

Hope's smile stretched out wide and warmly, brightening its features sharply against its contrasted empty eyes, "You have called upon my power out of desperation, hoping to resolve an issue that you knew could not be cared for through the power of magic. The soul that you seek to reclaim... its time was fulfilled, as is the time of all souls when they pass on. The laws of nature will not allow any interference in its design, and this is known to you also. Why, then, do you seek my help? I, the power that was never meant to be used?"

Sakura chose to answer that question with one of her own, "Is it also not the wish of nature to want those same souls to continue on, even after death? For a soul to be returned home, and then released again to experience a new life?

"My friend, she did die, yes. But was her death a part of nature's design? It was Eriol who told me that what Tomoyo had been forced into was not something of natural cause, but was the end result of something completely out of its control. He told me that her soul had not been returned to the source of its creation, but had instead been forced away from it. Forced into an isolation that will eventually destroy her.

Sakura's gaze dropped away from her card's unnerving gray eyes, "All of life should be given the chance to live their lives fully. But Tomoyo won't have that chance anymore, will she? That's why I'm asking for your help. Even if we can't bring her back to life, I want to at least try and save her from any further suffering. She doesn't deserve to die alone. No one does..."

Hope released her grip on Sakura's hands, allowing both of their arms to drop slowly back to their sides, though not before she reached up to clean away a small droplet that was making its way down Sakura's cheek. She then stepped away from her mistress quietly, never looking away, her smile ever-present.

Her wings flapped gently before she spoke again, "Hope is a fundamental requirement for life, for it is what drives all living beings towards survival. That you would believe so deeply that there is yet hope for your friend means that there may yet be a chance for her to be saved."

Sakura's gaze shot back up to look into Hope's eyes as the little girl floated up and away, taking a place a few meters in the air above her, "You are right. The soul you seek was severed from its source. Your friend will no longer feel the warm embrace of nature's care, nor will she ever again know the warmth of the love that her friends have for her. Yet there is still a chance, for what you suspect to be is indeed true: nature grieves as deeply as you do for this loss. The Great Mother yearns for nothing more than the safe return of its child.

Hope's once-happy features hardened over in an instant, "However, you should know that there is a danger. Even though there is the chance that this soul can be returned, it is a slim one at best. Not only that, but the act of calling it back may exact a price upon those who seek to reclaim it, and such a price may even prove to be fatal. Are you willing to risk your life in exchange for another?"

Sakura's words came forth before she could even process them, "If it means bringing Tomoyo back to this world, then I'll do anything. I made a promise once to keep her from being sad. I owe her that much, at the very least."

Hope's gentle smile returned to her child-like face, "Such is the drive for existence that hope brings out in every living being. Very well, then I shall do what I can to assist my mistress.

"First, we both know that the soul you seek has been pushed beyond the reaches of even nature's hand. With the assistance of the dark force that you recently eliminated, it was literally thrown into the vastness of a pure dimensional void, the emptiness that lies between worlds and realities. Normally, there would be no salvation for such a fate, but the power of my kindred cards and I are far from normal. We may still have a chance.

"What do we do?" Sakura asked anxiously.

Hope shook her head slightly, "Before that, you must know that there are three things that are in need of being fulfilled:

"The first requirement is that of life, for all beings within nature must possess the ability to live. The life essence of a physical body is what the spirit draws upon. It is what sustains every one of us, and it is what binds us to the physical plane. From those of a simplistic mortal life, like you humans, to even those beings created by varying magical wonders, such as us cards, a physical life force to sustain the soul is mandatory to exist in this world. For your friend's soul to return, her body must be given the ability to support that soul anew. This requirement, however, will be the most difficult to fulfill.

"Secondly, there is the requirement of death, for all beings within nature must possess the ability to die. For the one you seek, while it was an... alternative to death, what she suffered was nonetheless still a death. Her body has lost the ability to die again, its life force wholly depleted. For your friend's soul to return, her body must be allowed to die once more. It is in this that balance is maintained, so that life and death are forever in circulating motion.

"The third requirement, and perhaps the most important, is the desire for one to _want_ to live. Such a desire is brought about by a hope for the future. One can easily possess the ability to live and to die, and one may very well make good use of those abilities, but without the added ability to hope for something within that life, such gifts are useless to the point of being non-existent. For your friend's soul to return, her body must be able to accept that there is yet life to be had. There must be hope within her so that she would want to live that life again.

"If these three things can be granted to both her physical body and immaterial soul, we may yet succeed in granting your wish."

"How can I give her all of that?" Sakura begged, "Please, tell me!"

The card shook her head again, "No, not all. You may only provide to her one of these things. It will be the only part that you will need to provide, as well, for I sense through my siblings that you have wonderful friends working to provide the remaining two parts. No, the part that you shall render to this soul is the power that I possess: the light of Hope."

The card then closed her vacant eyes, looking away from her master as if embarrassed, "It is a time that I now regret. When I once fought against you, selfishly seeking the companionship of my siblings, my power was brought forth by the consumption of all things around me. I could only utilize my power by first absorbing the combined life forces of the environment around me. Surely you must remember this part."

Sakura did indeed remember it. She remembered it all too well, in fact, for this was the exact same explanation that Eriol had given her on the day when her cards had been stolen away by the very girl that now floated before her. He had told her that in order for the card – which had back then been the Nothing – to use its power, it needed to erase various things around it. Anything from landmarks, to scenery, and even people. It had even erased all of her friends and her guardians in its attempt to steal away all of her cards. In the end, however, such tactics had only proven to be the Nothing's downfall, when Sakura had at first believed Syaoran to also be a victim of its power. Her perseverance had raged to the forefront after that, allowing her one final chance to confront and defeat it.

"And now, all of that has changed," Hope continued, "Now I draw my strength from your power, the light of the Stars. But despite the new source of my continued existence, the _requirement_ of my power still remains the same, in that I must consume an equal amount of energy for the power I must enact. To that end, if you wish to revive the light of hope within your friend, you must first sacrifice another one's hope and desires in exchange. Namely, your own."

The words struck at Sakura like a thrown brick, and she quickly found herself at a complete loss as for what to do. She would have to sacrifice her own hope to help restore Tomoyo's hope? And even then, there was still the chance that it would not work? She swiftly found herself wishing for there to be another way, anything to avoid what now seemed to be a worst case scenario. She did not want to lose her hope or her feelings, not when she had worked so hard to finally be able to understand them. But then, she knew there was no other way. And not only that, but she also noticed that there was not a shred of hesitation within her. She was willing, desperate even, to do this, and all of this was regardless of the fact that the cost was too high.

"And yet..."

Sakura's eyes shot up to her floating card as it spoke again, the child's words sparking another faint light of hope within her own heart.

"And yet?" Sakura repeated.

Hope smiled gently, "And yet, we've already been through all of this before, haven't we?"

Sakura's surprise at the question was further compounded by a sense of wonder when a soft light shimmered into view in between Hope and herself, waving about as would a mirage in the distance of a desert. A faint red soon came into focus, further deepening in vibrancy even as two feathered arms of white attached to the red body of the image came into being. It was not too much longer before Sakura recognized it for what it was: the unnamed card that she had created so long ago. The winged heart.

It was with this card that she had saved Syaoran from having his own feelings erased by Hope's former self, the Nothing. The nameless card, which was a physical representation of her love for him, was what had given him the hope to break through the Nothing's bonds. It was what had also transformed the Nothing into the Hope card that she now stood in audience with. Her eyes widened at the return of such a memory, and the realization that was carried along with it.

Hope from nothingness.

Hope reached out happily towards the floating heart, taking the nameless object into her arms much like she had done in her sealed form. She squeezed the heart gently, embracing it lovingly, then turned her cheerful gaze back towards her mistress, "I see that you are starting to understand."

Hope released the winged heart back into freedom just as quickly as she had grabbed at it, to let it float about on its own once more. The heart then moved of its own accord to take up a position directly between the two that were with it, its wings flapping quietly in the air of the void around them.

Hope's next words were marked by a mask of seriousness once again coming over her fading cheer, "For there to be hope, there must be yet another three conditions fulfilled:

"The first is the strength of will, which is the ability for one to believe in oneself despite all circumstances. This is an all-encompassing quality of hope, the most basic form that one must possess if there is to be any hope at all. And it is something that you are surely all too familiar with."

Sakura nearly jumped as something grabbed at her right hand, taking hers into its own with a tenderness that she was intimately familiar with. Her eyes cast about to her right slowly to verify her thoughts, and sure enough she found her Syaoran standing beside her, a soft smile matching his soft brown eyes as they gazed into her own emerald ones. They stood there for a moment, as such, with Sakura easily becoming lost within the depths of his spirit. She knew that she could stare at those eyes all day long and never grow tired of them, and she knew this because those same eyes would always return to her the same feelings that she felt. and all the while, Sakura not once wondered as to the reason for Syaoran's sudden presence. Even after they were forced to break eye contact when he turned to look up to the angelic card that floated above them, she was only slightly aware of the fact that he was not supposed to be here.

"The second requirement is the ability to _feel_, to accept one's emotions – the threads that weave themselves together to create the tapestry of hope – as truth. To be able to rely on one's instincts, to understand what is happening both around and within oneself. To be able to take it all in stride, to accept reality with a clear conscience, and to move forward in life knowing fully that your path is true."

Another person gripped her left hand, and this time Sakura was far less surprised than she had been previously. Conversely, another feeling made itself painfully known to her when she automatically recognized the hand that had taken hers. She almost did not want to look, even, because she knew that she was right. And because this new hand was most certainly an impossibility, she also understood now that these people appearing all around her were mere illusions of this void world. Yet her eyes regardless moved in that unwanted direction without her consent, picking out the dark amethyst eyes through her own tears that were threatening to overflow. If not for that gentle and special smile that Tomoyo had put on just for her, Sakura was sure that she would have broken down right then and there.

One tear slipped down her face, regardless, which Sakura found herself powerless to clear away while both of her hands were tied down. It only forced her to make more when Tomoyo reached up with her free hand to clean it away in Sakura's stead, a loving smile causing her eyes to sparkle with a hidden light. Despite the anguish within her heart, Sakura could not help but smile back, a feature that remained on her face long after the two had looked back to hear Hope's next words.

"The last requirement is for the desire to protect, to never lose sight of one's devotion even when something threatens to take all that one holds dear. From the moment that I became a part of you, mistress, I could feel the overwhelming desire to protect those that you care for, to protect even those you knew felt no respect or care for you in return. It is this great respect for all of life that has granted you such wonderful friends to walk with you along your chosen path."

Footsteps to her left drew Sakura's attention away from the floating card once more and sent it wandering beyond Tomoyo's presence, her eyes finding a small flash of steel as a familiar katana sat astride of Reios's shoulders. His head turned to stare down the sword's length, revealing a roguish and cocksure smile to her before sheathing his sword in a deliberately fluidic motion. He crossed his arms, his staff-like katana held within them, and continually maintained his grin even as he turned away to look up to Hope along with the others.

Another set of approaching footsteps came in from her right, beyond Syaoran's side of her, bearing with them the cocky grin of her elder brother as he came to a stop a few steps away from them. He stared at her continually with that grin, afterwards, almost as though he was on the verge of cracking another monster joke. Except that, on this one occasion, she did not mind. If anything, she was glad that he was with her, and somehow she also understood why it was that he always acted the way he did. Even if it was completely and intolerably frustrating.

Then a veritable crowd of footsteps approached from behind her at about the same time that both Tomoyo and Syaoran released their holds on her hands. Gently they took to her shoulders instead, urging her to turn about and see who it all was that had approached. They turned her to her right, her gaze sweeping across the crowd as more and more people became visible: Yukito, who was standing behind Touya, and Yue, who was somehow standing alongside Yukito. From there, she saw Kero in his true form sitting patiently behind Yue, and then realized that all three of them were looking to her with kindly faces.

She was turned further about, and was surprised to find both Eriol _and_ Clow Reed to be standing behind her, their matching all-knowing grins beaming down upon her. Beside them stood her childhood friends: Chiharu, Naoko, Rika, Takashi, and even her befriended former teacher, Kaho. And behind those five stood all of the people she had befriended throughout her young life. Everyone from her teachers and various other classmates, all the way down to people that she had met with her father, people that she had encountered during her work with the cards, and people that, up until then, she had barely even remembered. Yet every face was completely familiar to her.

Even more so familiar were the faces that appeared as she was made to complete her roundabout tour of her memories, as every single card that she held within her deck materialized up before her. Every single one of them was staring at her with faces full of kindness and loyalty, a feeling that she felt reciprocated within her own heart more strongly than the faces from before.

Yet even these were to be outdone by those two persons that were standing at the end of her journey into the past. Those two that meant as much to her as did those whom still held their hands to her shoulders. The two eyes of eternal kindness and devotion of her father and mother, both of whom nodded slowly to her almost as if to say that they were with her all the way.

And for as fast as her tour of memories had begun, it soon ended. Sakura found herself once again alone with her Hope card, left only with the memory of hands holding her own and of kind and loving faces all standing behind her. Sakura looked up to see Hope's own face, and felt suddenly bewildered that she was nowhere near as cheerful as those memories had been. And when her card finally spoke, she understood why.

"These are the people that create the basis for your hope," Hope noted solemnly, "for they are the source of your emotions and strength. These are the feelings that I will then require, for these feelings of love and desire must be infused into your friend's lost soul if she is to be able to return."

Sakura no longer cared for the consequences, and with a bright glint of hope appearing within her eyes, she said as much, "If it means bringing Tomoyo back safe and sound, then take it all."

A bright giggle from her card surprised Sakura once again, as Hope beckoned the winged heart back into her grasp for a second time. She hugged the heart tightly to herself, staring down at Sakura with a rather cheerful smile, "But as I said before, we've already been through this, right? You, who's feelings have the power to change even the very world around you."

Even as Sakura felt her inner power being tapped, even as Hope re-released that winged heart so that she might manipulate the void around her to finally enact what she had been invoked to perform, Sakura understood. She could feel the power of the Hope card resonating with her own inner light, her own hope, and she knew that she would be able to make it through even the worst of what was thrown at her. She would ever continue to strive for the best possible outcome, even when there was no hope left remaining to her.

Hope from nothingness.

And as the floating card above her continued to focus her void power, Sakura began to focus her own Star power, instinctively leading her magic into a point that she was not even fully aware of. The magic circle in representation of the stars flared into being below her, the lines of the central star being traced along by various nodes of light until each line within the star flared up to form a column of light all around her. Sakura's focused power then condensed further still into a singular point in front of her, swirling about until it became manifest as a visible aura. An aura that soon expanded itself into a familiar rectangular shape. A new card. A Sakura Card.

The streaming column of light from her magic circle, as well as that magic circle itself, immediately after vanished without a trace, leaving her in the company of her three cards: the Hope, the unnamed winged heart, and her new card which as yet remained within its sealed form. Cautiously, Sakura reached out for it and turned it about to gaze upon its image, and for a moment she wondered if she had somehow resealed the nameless card that was still above her. But then, there were also differences, for where the floating heart above her was of a deep red, the identical winged heart pictured upon her new unnamed card was of the purest white that anyone could ever imagine.

All further thought was thrown aside as Sakura was absorbed into a purity of darkness far greater than that of even the void that still surrounded her. She could feel her negative card's power at work, and she knew that Hope was finally in the process of enacting the command that Sakura had originally given. Hope's magic would drain away all of the hope and emotion that Sakura held within herself, the very light that gave her cause to live, and then would infuse that hope into Tomoyo's lost soul and body to give it a second chance. And when all was done, Sakura would no longer care, because her hope for the future would have been long since drained away.

So if her hope was to be completely torn from her, she would just have to rebuild that hope and start again. If it was for her friends, for her family, she would sacrifice anything and everything she had to keep them safe.

If it was for her Syaoran... if it was for her Tomoyo... she would give her very life if it meant granting them another chance.

And even after she was lost, she would fight her way back.

The nameless, white-heart card exploded at that instant, disrupting Hope's hold upon her mistress and in turn substituting its own power in Sakura's place. And even as Sakura's conscience faded away from the void world of Hope's creation, she could feel the power of her new card being absorbed into Hope's void spell, becoming one with both Hope herself and the first unnamed card that she had created.

All three of them were cards that she had created when she had been at the very edge of despair. And each time, with their help, she had fought her way back.

Hope from nothingness.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

As her mind was returned to her body, Sakura found herself being filled with an awareness of all the things around her, both inanimate and otherwise. She was made aware of the zest for life that each individual entity held, and was almost mentally blinded by the sense of hope she could feel emanating from one of the cards that floated above her.

She was then equally blinded by a more familiar light of hope emanating from someone sitting in front of her, and she knew that within Tomoyo there now rested the light of hope that had, for a short time, been her second nameless card. It was what had once been her own hope, and it was now burning brightly from within Tomoyo's lifeless form.

Sakura's hope would become the hope of a new life.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	79. The Death

_9-3: The Death_

He awakened within perpetual darkness, and for the slightest moment found it identical to what that old sorcerer from before had just recently entrapped everyone within, a feeling that immediately put him on the defensive. Yet despite his surprise at suddenly finding himself within the infinite blackness of a makeshift Void, Eriol soon realized through this that he was within a world of his card's creation. Even though he could feel an overwhelming power of emptiness, there was still that familiar feel in the air of his card's devout and unwavering loyalty towards him. It was an eerie combination of influences that surrounded him, which only served to put him even more on edge than before.

A quick glance about the place with both his eyes and his senses told him that he was alone, even though his senses also told him that the power of the Death card had completely enveloped everything around him. Or was it the opposite, that it had instead taken him into itself? He was sure of it then, that it was the mental aspect of his being that had been pulled away from his body and transported into the Death's domain. At least that explained the apparent lack of cards at his side, which was the next thing that he noticed.

"Nothing less from the former Clow Reed."

Eriol went on the defensive again as he looked up to sight the floating boy, regardless that he already knew the voice and child that was confronting him to be that of his own card. That this smiling child's wings – of which there were four – were stretching away from his back instead of his head was confirmation enough that this was his own card, and not the original Nothing that Clow Reed had designed. The pure black robes, again completely contrasted from the Nothing's guise, merely accentuated the power that the boy-like card was supposed to represent, to say nothing of the vacancy made apparent within his thinly colored gray eyes.

Gazing deep within them, Eriol unwillingly found himself being made vividly aware of an impending doom, like a sharpened axe hovering just over his neck. To Eriol, he who would have known the best on how to deal with such sensations of magic, it almost scared him to think of how suddenly his mortality had crept up on him.

"What do you mean?" Eriol asked the card cautiously.

Death's childish voice spread across the void evenly, as if emanating from every direction at once, "You saw through the preconceptions of emptiness that our foe from before had created, that is all. However, this is insignificant."

"Then why am I here?" Eriol pressed on, ever wary of the potential intentions of such a powerful magical creature.

"For the express purpose of desiring the use of my power, I should think. A power that you have summoned through an act of desperation. And even then, it is an act that is not of your own wish, but of someone else's. Why do you seek such a dangerous path, especially when you, of all people, should already know of the impossibility of it? To revive a soul that has been sent away from the physical realm to its deserved reprieve, you would risk the very wrath of nature itself?"

Eriol eased off his guarded stance slowly, instead turning his energies to further scrutinize the boy before him, "I seek such a path because it is something I owe not to that soul, but to the ones that wish for its return. And while it is true that such a wish would normally be impossible, in this case I believe that there will be an exception to the norm. Not all is as Creation has willed, and such is as we all believe. Even you, I think."

Death's sadly-sweet smile angled over as he cocked his head slightly to one side, "Thus you would invoke the power of death to return someone to life?"

Eriol nodded without speaking further, forcing an even deeper smile to spring up spontaneously from the card's vacant expression, "And you believe that the magic of my emptiness will be able to influence the powers of Creation itself?"

Eriol shook his head, "It will not influence anything of the sort, for neither Creation nor nature has had anything to do with the loss of the one we wish to be brought back. Nature would rejoice, if anything, should our attempts be successful. But regardless of any potential consequences, I will give everything within my power to fulfill these wishes. I owe everyone involved at least that much."

Death nodded slowly with a pious air, closing his eyes as he continued to speak, "Then you should know that there may yet be a chance for the one you seek. The price shall be high, mind you. Perhaps even fatal, if you are not prepared. And still you will continue?"

Eriol locked onto Death's deadened stare as the child's eyes opened back to him again, "If you are referring to the use of your power, I am already fully aware of your requirements to enact the command that I have given. Your power must draw from my own spirit, instead of the world around you as was originally designed. That something of myself must be given up in order for your magic to work its designs properly."

Death nodded again, "Then you will already know that what I require of you is your physical ability to die."

Having anticipated such a follow-up to his explanation, Eriol was nonetheless taken aback by the blunt form of speech with which Death revealed his power source. To be honest, Eriol was actually quite disturbed with the implications of it all. Immortality, the hidden dream of almost every single mortal, was summarily being offered up to him, and here he was being scared of the thought.

Noting the uncertainty that was creeping through his master's eyes, Death continued on, "The ability to die is the defining point in all of life, for all of life must possess the ability to pass on in order to actually be alive. Such is the balance that nature has instilled, for what good is the purpose of life without the ability to lose it? What value would those in this world place to it if they were not forced to cherish it?"

Death then grinned at Eriol knowingly, "Of course, you and your former self, whom in a way were my masters both, would be the ones to know this best."

Eriol also grinned, in spite of himself, "Yes, this is true. However, the problem here is that I will still be alive when I give up my bodily association with death. A strange idea, that immortality is one of the truer ambitions of man, and here I am finding myself worried of its consequences. Regardless, it will be worth it if Sakura remains happy. Our world would be truly lost if her smile were to ever–"

Eriol's voice lost all focus when he felt a hand clamp down onto his shoulder, albeit gently. He did not, for the life of him, recognize the hand that had taken him, nor did he know the feel or look of it. And yet his instincts literally screamed at him as to the answer, revealing to him a reality that should have been impossible. His head cranked about to find that the impossible had then been made possible, when it was made true that the ghost of Clow Reed himself was the one to be standing over his shoulder, ever smiling, ever confident.

Eriol was quite literally speechless at being faced with the actual visage of his former self. He knew that Sakura had encountered Clow Reed in this form several times before, but those had been simple mental projections cast into the bindings of her book. They had been illusions based on magic so that Clow could send his messages to her even through death. But what Eriol felt now was nothing of the sort, for beyond that which held together Death's void-world, there was no magic present here. There were no binding ties between the spirit he saw and any discernible object nearby. Nor was there even a breach between worlds, like what Eadric had created in his attempts to bring the Void into the real world.

"I am truly happy that the ending has come to be as it has," Clow began, his familiar yet never-before-heard voice surprising Eriol even further, "for what I was made to start has been completed by those I chose for my heirs. Now the world may know its unending cycle of life indefinitely, and one might even be blessed to return to it."

Clow's ghost looked up and away into the emptiness above, "And once again I find myself in wonder at the complexities of the human heart. While you, one who has been given the opportunity to watch over these events, may have eventually foreseen the changes in those hearts involved, I myself never would have thought that she would choose to invoke such dangerous magic just for the sake of one life."

Eriol's head dropped slightly, "I do admit to not being surprised at the more recent change of heart that our dear Sakura has had, but I, too, was veritably amazed at the choice that she made when faced with the chance. Which is unfortunate, for, as a result, I now must forever live with these memories to haunt me."

"One is never forced to do anything if one does not wish it," Clow continued, "Even under the burden of responsibility, this choice is also yours. There will always be a way to move around an obstacle. Or, if the challenge persist, _through _it.

"You are who you are, which means you are not me. But at the same time, we are also one and the same. You have yet to grow into your full potential, but your potential shall be as mine was, which means you have only to attain it. Both Sakura and Reios have accepted their potentials, and continue to mature into such strength while you are continually holding yourself back, hesitant."

"I am not you," Eriol reminded his former self, "nor do I wish to be. You reincarnated in this way for that specific reason, so that I might recall who I once was in order to find away to avoid such a fate. I do not wish to be like you, the most powerful man to ever live on this earth. I want to live peacefully with those I love, not be continually at war with both mine and their fates just for simply _knowing_ that fate ahead of time."

Clow nodded slightly, "Then this choice is yours. But I ask you: what influence does this have on the potential you bear within?"

Eriol felt his breathing stop momentarily while his mind put the full of its intelligence towards this one thought. He asked himself that same question: what did his power have to do with his life? Was he really going to allow his legacy to control who he was? If he truly held the potential to be the next Clow Reed, as his two companions also potentially did, would it not be within his power to properly manipulate that legacy, even if he could not fully control it? Clow had lived his life the way he wanted, despite some rather pronounced character flaws and his uncontrollable ability of foresight, which in turn meant that Eriol should be able to live in the same way. As he wanted.

"You have tasted freedom from my fate, despite that you have continually resisted that freedom. That I sealed away certain parts of my memories from your mind is true. I purposefully prevented you from understanding the past, in order to keep you from predicting the future – a wish that you and I have always dreamed of attaining. Had you had access to my memories, allowing you to predict and counter the movements of our enemies, Eadric the scholar and his elemental thralls, it would have completely defeated the reason behind your wanting to be rid of our burden of foresight. Added together with the combined power of the elemental spirits dampening that same burden, my influence has granted you a blissful two weeks where your wish was temporarily granted. That is to say, you were not the most powerful sorcerer in the world.

"So that your power – my power – would not influence your choices, you were purposefully kept on edge. As a result, you were forced to create a fate of your own design. An ability which we have always had from the start."

There was a noticeable pause to give Eriol time to absorb and process this information, before Clow continued on with his speech, "And there is more that yet needs to be done. More choices that must be made. I once ensured the survival of my power and memories by manipulating the energies within the soul to carry them along to its next host, instead of leaving them behind in the world of spirits. So, too, could you. And perhaps more. Where I was given solely to the survival and care of my children and their futures, you would seem have a far more desperate purpose to your designs. It would make the spell of reincarnation much more powerful by comparison."

Eriol had already stopped hearing his former self, for forces of magic far greater than he had ever tried to wield were now coursing through his body. But for every new ounce of power that flowed into him, there was no loss of control. There was only a sense that this was a power that he was meant to have, regardless that he did not want it. In the end, it could only amount to one thing. A single thought in his mind that allowed him to proceed down this once-forbidden path.

He had a job to do, and he would do anything to accomplish it.

The familiar golden circle of the sun and moon flared to life below him, in conjunction with his arms shooting skyward to draw out its magic. This, in turn, created a visible point of light directly in front of him, a speck of magic that hungrily began to absorb anything and everything that Eriol could think to throw into it. That light soon began to grow in strength and intensity, ever so slowly stretching outwards into some unrecognizable shape. Then he put even more of his power into his creation, just enough to make it into a form that he could manipulate for his own needs.

It was not his time to move on, of this Eriol was certain. But if he would be forced to live eternally by the loss of his ability to die, then he would take his own life at that exact same instant to deny the continuation of his existence. In doing so, he would grant his future to his next self. A future person that would play the host to his spirit, just as he himself had done for Clow Reed. A future that he was creating at this very moment. A second Eriol.

The point of light before him sparked and flared, expanding without notice into a shape in vague resemblance of a humanoid form. Taking from within himself a sliver of his own existence, Eriol implanted into his creation the very core of his own heart and soul. The illuminated being responded to such a gift with a sharp gasp of its first breath of life.

Eriol would not allow himself to die, not yet. But he could not accept an eternal imprisonment as the same person, either. So he would instead sacrifice a part of himself, if it was going to come down to that. He would instead entrust the majority of his thoughts and dreams to the one whom would have followed after him anyway. In this way, Eriol would ensure his survival, just like Clow Reed had done.

The created being gasped again, and with each breath took on more and more of a human-like appearance until its skin tone, hair color, and even the princely battle costume which it wore all began to match what Eriol would have seen through a mirror. He marveled at the complexity of the spell that his full potential had brought on, but also shunned the fact that he would also be sacrificing a human life for his needs. Even if it was his own life.

It was when fully he realized what he intended to do that Eriol found a flaw within his spell. A hidden anomaly that had already taken its full course, and could not be corrected. By the time that he actually made an effort to reverse the spell and cancel its effects, his magic had already completed itself to the point that Eriol found himself staring into a mirror image of his own person, his clone's dark blue eyes staring right back towards him. The first thing that flew into his mind was that there would be horrifying ramifications to accompany his actions.

And it was what his clone said – or rather, who was speaking – that horrified him the most.

Clow Reed's deep and calm voice spoke once again, and this time it was through the body of the second Eriol, "Each body is gifted its soul from the very moment that it is conceived. Within this world of nothingness where nature holds only a minimal sway, such is what you have done to me, your newest creation. You utilized the only soul available to you, and created a new life. It is a true example of the full potential that I have entrusted to both you and your friends."

"And you?" Eriol asked anxiously.

"I have already moved on. To die again for a cause that will only bring happiness to our dear Sakura and her children is of no consequence, for I shall only return to where I belong. The spell of my creation that you have weaved for me has already been altered by my own hand so that I will be bereft of life at the moment that I am bereft of death."

The Clow-Eriol explained no further, instead choosing to turn towards the Death card floating above them, "Child designed by my original power, you will find that we two before you are your masters both. Draw again from my strength, so that your true master may be spared from such a cruel fate."

No sooner had he spoken, then he was surrounded by a transparent field of negative energy. Death's power soon began to clash violently with the energy of whatever spell that Clow-Eriol had set moments before, attempting to rip away the clone's ability to die as he was simultaneously in the process of dying. Caught between the two conflicting magics, his body soon began to fade away from existence, despite Eriol's efforts to intervene in on the process with his own magic. Then, as the ghost of the true Clow Reed began to reappear in his reincarnation's place, and even as the mental link between Eriol and the dimensional void around them was severed, Clow spoke one last time to him.

"Please take care of my children, both magic and human alike."

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

Even as his mind returned to him, Eriol was filled with an awareness of all the things around him. He could see the sense of doom that was hanging over every creature, every object, and every shadow. To sense the mortality of everything within his mind's reach was both a saddening and cheerful experience. Life would end, but life would also continue. The cycle would remain unbroken. He was doubly grateful to be able to sense his own mortality, as well, the doom looming over his life visible only in the distant future. It lingered far and well beyond what he was currently capable of predicting.

Then he was made aware of one other mortal being, one very close and very special to both himself and those standing beside him. And while she still harbored no visible light of life, it was now clear that there was a hope to be had in the coming of an end.

An end that, in a way, both Clow Reed _and_ Eriol had sacrificed of themselves to bestow upon her.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	80. The Life

_9-4: The Life_

He awakened within perpetual darkness, completely unaware of what had just taken place beyond the fact that he was no longer where he had been. The purity of the darkness that now surrounded him was a simple enough verification of that. What was more was that there was this familiar sensation of an absolute absence of... well, anything, really. The environment that surrounded him lacked any and all sense of material quality, as if reality itself had been undone. It was unnerving to how much it felt like being isolated within a tight-spaced and unlit room.

This unwanted familiarity brought Reios's mind back to several minutes before, when he had been trapped and alone within that damned Eadric's self-made void, and wondered if he was perhaps now back in that detestable place. The unwelcome thought came to him that all of his work between the time from his supposed escape up until now had been merely a delusional dream, which set him to thinking that perhaps none of it had really ever happened. Or that he had tried to escape, but had been – no, stop. This was not a time for panicked thoughts. A methodical outlook, a calmed approach. This is what he needed right now.

The last thing that he remembered doing, before being returned to this all-encompassing darkness, was attempting to call upon the power of his negative energy card, the Life. From there on in, everything within his mind drew up blank until his reawakening here in the dark void. Yet try as he might to work out his current scenario, there was only one conclusion that he could come up with: he had been forced here against his will for some sinister purpose.

"Your suspicions are unfounded, my master."

Reios spun about to face the source of the voice, only to find that it had emerged all from all around him. Even so, his vision came to rest upon a four-winged girl clad in robes of the purest white, vividly offsetting her dark and vacant eyes almost uncomfortably. Eyes that were a perfect match for her utterly emotionless and nonchalant face. The way that she had just outright appeared before him suggested that she had always been there, except that Reios had been quite unquestionably alone just moments before.

"Excuse me?" he shot back harshly.

Beyond her mouth moving to voice her words, Life remained completely motionless, "In that I would think to bring you intentional harm, such thoughts are unfounded. I am here by your request, as are you, having brought my powers into play as you have in an act of desperation. But I must ask: why do you call to me if you know that the task is impossible?"

Reios's face hardened over, "Because it is not impossible, or else I would not have called. Can you help her, or not?"

Life shook her head slightly, "I cannot, for nature would not allow it. Imbued as I am with the essence of life, I still cannot bend the wishes of nature to my will, for my very power is bound by that nature. The one that you seek has lost her life. It is something that I cannot grant to her again, for once is all that can be."

Reios stood his ground, refusing to believe in what he was hearing, "No, that's not it. The natural ways of life had nothing to do with her... her passing. Surely it would allow us this one chance? A chance to save her from this undeserved fate?"

Life stared at him for a moment, pondering her master with her expressionless features, "Perhaps it would, as I am sure it would wish to do as any parent would if it meant the survival of one of its own. Such is the relationship and bond between the source of Creation and its offspring. Do you believe that you can do something about it?"

"Whether I can or cannot, I don't know," Reios muttered, "But then, that's why I'm asking for your help, isn't it? If it means trying something, and then trying again and again until we get it right, then I'll do it."

His card regarded him for a moment silently, impassively. It was a mere second in truth, yet to Reios it passed more akin to several minutes.

And when she spoke again, he was not certain of whether to hope or to grow angry, "Know then that there is one final light for the one you seek, though in the end the worth of her life must be balanced against your own. Are you willing to accept this?"

"What does the worth of one's life have to do with anything?" he asked, unaware that his voice was rising slowly towards shouting, "Are you saying she's not worth bringing back!?"

"If she is worth it, then your life must be as well, for that is the energy source that I require."

Reios gave a visible start, the wide-eyed gaze of him finally understanding Life's actual intent prompting her to explain herself further, "It would be assumed knowledge that in order for one to live, one must have the ability to live. The purpose of the body is to harbor the life essence of the soul and sustain it, to allow it to maintain its place upon the material plane. Such an essence is eventually used up entirely when death takes its course, turning the body into nothing more than a cracked and broken shell. Once a vessel that was whole, it becomes one that is no longer able to retain the spiritual waters of life.

"However, and regardless that there may no longer be a soul to inhabit it, the body itself can still be revived. But to repair these cracks and restore the loss of life, the essence of another life must be given up in exchange. In this case, I would require the life of you, my master, he whom I would draw my power from. Such is the nature of negative energy, to consume all it owns into nothingness. Such is the requirement, that I draw away your life essence so that your command may be granted."

Reios shook his head sadly, "Now hang on. I don't remember asking you to kill me. And please forgive me for saying so, but you're starting to sound an awful lot like that old man that we just defeated. Using life to create life."

Life continued to speak in her notably lifeless manner, "Regardless, this is the only way for your desire to be fulfilled. If your friend's life–"

"Wait, right there," Reios interrupted, reaching for his key meanwhile, "Sorry, but I don't believe in the 'one option only' scenario. If all you're going to do is take life in order to grant it, then it makes you no better than that pitiful excuse for a human that we just took out, and I'm afraid that I can't allow such a power to continue existing."

He drew his magic sword out into its true form, "If you can't help me bring Tomoyo back, then I'll just have to keep searching until I find something that will."

"Just like how you kept searching for a way to bring back your dead grandmother?"

Such words were unacceptable to him, and when combined with Life's constant lack of and emotional state and vacant, uncaring eyes, it became enough to throw Reios into a blinding rage. He charged at his child-like card without a second thought, sword held edge-out and primed for a decapitating swing. He launched himself into the air just as he began his swing, coming in from above the floating child and crying furiously for retribution.

The only resistance from the winged girl was the emergence of a dark spheroid of negative energy, which he met head on in his descent towards her. He swung prematurely to clear the obstacle from his path, only to find himself submerged within a darkness more pure and deep than any that his nightmares had ever shown to him. There was not even any time to scream before he was completely absorbed into nothingness, his body destroyed by the forced removal of his life essence.

When all was quiet again, the floating, winged girl in representation of the power of Life looked up into the blackened sky, a creation of its own design, and revealed to nothing but itself the kindest of smiles.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

Even as his mind returned to him, Reios was filled with the awareness of all the things around him, and was practically blinded by the sheer intensity of the light that glowed from within such things. He could see and hear every human, every animal and insect, and every tree and flower. All of them were resonating brightly with a brilliant rainbow of vibrant color and sound. It was the orchestration of life, a painted scene of music that was both harmonic and discorded at the same time.

He would have wept for the absolute beauty of it all, were his own life not so quickly slipping away from him.

But there was a silence. An intolerable quiescence within the cacophony of light, originating from something that refused to sing with the breath of life. His gaze trailed down to the constant smile on her face, his heart shattering in tandem with his strength when he could discern no evident light of life shining forth, and no harmonic beauty to accompany it.

_With the fading of my master's light, there can be no power with which for me to draw upon._

His Life card's childish voice filtered in from behind him, registered by only his ears and mind alone. He could not understand why it had failed, for he had given his life away just as she had asked, but the fact still remained that he had indeed failed. With what few drops of life that yet remained to him, he finally wept, issuing a pair of tears that fell away from him together with the very world that was crashing down all upon him.

"Forgive me," he whispered, his sight never leaving Tomoyo's closed eyes even as the light began to dim.

And then the world went black.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	81. Your End is at Hand

_9-5: "Your End is at Hand"_

The silence that held sway for the several minutes after the three had used their respective cards was almost palpable. It was certainly setting Syaoran into a rather poor mood, and mostly because he was unable to be of any help to them like this. But even if he had actually had the required knowledge and magical strength to force his mind into whatever place that he had felt the others taken into, there was no guarantee that he would have been able to retain his magical ability there, to say nothing of even being useful in such a condition. If there was anything worse than Sakura having to suffer over everything that had happened this day, it was that he was quite literally helpless to do anything effective about it at the moment. To always be there for her was all he had, but not only did it just did not seem to be enough anymore, he also did not even have _that_ right now.

Even so, he managed to smile in spite of himself, after telling himself for the twelfth time that those same events would not ever change how he felt about her. At the same time, he also knew that none of it would change her feelings for him, despite the obvious changes within her heart. Coincidentally, he realized that this was also how Tomoyo had felt for all of this time: always caring, without regard for anything that had, could, or would ever happen. Totally devoted. In a way, he sort of understood now why Tomoyo had pushed so hard to make him confess his own feelings to Sakura those few years ago. To her, as well as to him, Sakura's feelings and well-being took precedence over their own.

Yet even against these acknowledgements, there remained one steadfast constant. Whatever the future brought for them, he would be there for his Sakura.

Varied motions of fidgeting and glances snapped him back into reality, and he found himself watching intently as the three who stood in front of the cherry tree also regained their hold upon reality. All together, their four gazes were once again set upon Tomoyo's lifeless form, and one by one they smiled as the essences of revival began to infuse themselves into her body. Then a moment passed, and another, before they noticed that something was not quite right.

"Forgive me..."

The whispered words from Reios's lips confused them, but in the end that failed to matter when they were all gathered around him soon after his collapse. Before anyone had even seen him move or tilt, he had crumpled to the ground with a loud thump, his head landing a mere hand's width away from the tree and Tomoyo's body. Eriol immediately knelt down to investigate, taking note as he did so of the tears that were still trailing down Reios's wide-eyed face. He feared the worst, and placing his hand upon the man's forehead only confirmed it. It did not stop him from trying to delay the inevitable, though, as his hands glowed a deep crimson red to release his true magic into the fallen friend.

Yet even with his full magical potential now realized and welcomed, Eriol still knew deep down within that he was attempting the impossible, much like they all had been. He should have known better than to allow them all to attempt such a foolish venture, and now he would forever be haunted by this newest disaster. He soon enough gave up on his futile attempt, closing his eyes against the result of his miscalculations and in turn closing Reios's eyes to the world before leaning back onto his heels and away from Reios's body.

"It is too late," he muttered.

"Too late...?" Sakura repeated weakly, "For what? You don't mean... he... please, no."

She could pretty much sense what Eriol's diagnosis had just confirmed, but she refused to believe it. She had seen Reios take shots that most humans would have never survived, and had witnessed his miraculous return from the depths of nothingness. He was not that much unlike an immortal, insofar as his stubbornness for life went. So he could not possibly be... not him.

Eriol did not look up to face her, "There is nothing left of his spiritual essence within him. It is similar to what happened to Tomoyo; a result of his card's power gone awry, I fear. I'm sorry..."

In processing such an answer, Sakura's mind found itself caught between the two extremes of horror and depression. With her heart having already been teetering on the very brink of shattering, she was not honestly sure if she could endure this constant stream of losses any longer.

She remained practically catatonic as she stood and stared at the two lifeless figures below her. Unable to cry silently in grief, and unable to shout out with an inescapable anguish, she just stood there. Just like before, unable to do anything. And for having agreed to it all, once again she was at fault.

Another friend lost to them, and they could not do anything.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	82. Existence Within Paradox, pt 1

_9-6a: Existence Within Paradox, pt. 1_

What once had existed as a simple thought was now forever lost, the concept of a dream that was far beyond the understanding of such a simple thought. In such a dream that held no increments of time, endless and countless moments crawled their way along in an inexistent march. A painfully slow pace by the standards of what once was. It was something of an irony then, perhaps, for within this place there was no pain, nor feeling, nor time. Definition, in its most basic sense, held no meaning. In the end, this was all a mere fabrication of the dream that did not exist. The thought that was now forever lost.

The acquiring of awareness did not come easily, nor swiftly. Or perhaps it had not needed to come at all but had always been? Or maybe it had never existed, but was by chance miraculously granted? There would never be any verification of it all, but the fact remained that there now was a singular, self-aware existence. It was an impossibility that could have potentially provided the thought of there being other possibilities. So with the acquiring of awareness, there came such a thought. And with that thought, there came remembrance.

With remembrance, there came realization, and then he knew his place.

Sensation was the first thing to come to the forefront of his thoughts, forcing him to realize that the rules were different where he was now. There was nothing to feel, and there was nothing to see. He was effectively isolated away, although whatever he could possibly be isolated away from was a mystery, for he could sense a literal nothingness all around him. It was suggesting to him of the possibility that nothing existed at all, perhaps not even himself. An impossible world full of non-existent space, and he was the primary source of such a paradox for having defined it all.

He checked against himself, and felt the emergence of a new thought, which he quickly recognized as fear. Despite what his senses had tried to tell him, he knew from the existence of this thought that he was real, and that existence itself was true enough. Why he could not then sense himself within this expanse of nothingness, or why he could sense an actual expanse of nothingness in the first place, was incomprehensible. Another question that would forever find itself unanswered, which was perhaps the source of such a fear.

His search for himself then revealed something spectacular. Uncontrolled fleeting thoughts floating within the furthest reaches of his being, things once believed to have been lost along with himself. He immediately began to pull at them furiously, snatching and grabbing at bits and pieces as he sought to bring them back, to make them a part of him and to fulfill his existence all that much more. The struggle to be something allowed the merging of a thought with another thought, and soon created a new realization. A memory.

Clouds of mist and darkness shrouded his way, then suddenly cleared themselves only to return and cloak his thoughts once more. Yet between the parts that he could discern, through the pieces of the puzzle that he was able to put together, there was the knowledge that he had been sent here. A feeling of impatience overtook him, and he forcibly struck away the last of the cloud that was covering up his memories. The subsequent and sudden flood of near infinite thoughts sought to overwhelm him, and quickly he picked through all of the remnants that yet remained clear to him. Each one was of a past that he could now vividly remember. But then his memories ended most abruptly, the time line of his past cut off without any further trace.

His next realization came to him with an extreme harshness. He was dead.

With the end of mortality came the understanding that all material worth had been discarded, which somehow explained that he could not sense himself yet at the same time could know that he was still there. A simple enough of a concept, though it was one that still confounded him to no end. Yet since an end would never come within a world lacking of a defining reality, he put a stop to his thoughts of confusion before they could indeed stretch off to no end. Now that he was – mostly – back to his old mental state, he knew that the first thing he had to accomplish was to understand what needed to be done, and confusion would not help him there.

But what was there to do when one no longer existed? This question pestered his every moment of awareness, so much so that he soon found himself slipping back out of awareness just to avoid it. No answer was forthcoming, and an eternity of commitment to a singular question that could not provide sustenance would surely bring insanity. And so, with the slightest hint of resignation tugging at his thoughts, he drifted back into his eternal sleep.

Of course, what sleep was possible when there was no requirement for it, since such requirements did not exist in the first place? And so his mind refused to let itself go, instead choosing to bombard his awareness with continued thoughts of paradox and question. He could not even tell which was the more infuriating: that he could continually answer such questions with answers that were easily impossible yet proven, or that his answers proved that he was simply a false awareness.

For each answer that came to him, a paradox surfaced to prevent it. For each paradox that he buried, such an answer unfolded itself to a new reasoning, which itself brought about a new question. The answer to this next question was a paradox in itself, to which another paradox countered its meaning, while insisting that yet another question be addressed before such a paradox be set aside. But now a previously-answered paradox had been rendered invalid as a result, thus disassembling his entire efforts only to have those efforts verified by yet more questions, more answers, and other extremely annoying noises within his mind. Endless his train of thought seemed, much to the point that he found himself wishing that he could just fade off into the lack of existence that the world around him was offering. Anything to escape the meaningless babbling and pounding of his own thoughts.

Until he realized that there was the actual sensation of a _pounding_, and that it was something that did not exist as a part of his own consciousness. Confusing as they most certainly were, his thoughts were flowing freely and without restraint. These new thoughts that were not his own, on the other hand, were striking against his raging questions such as would a hammer against the rock wall of a mine. This proverbial hammer struck at his clamoring thoughts viciously, shattering them away and clearing his perceptions so that they might take up a new consideration. In particular, he considered the pounding sensation that again and again struck at him incessantly from without. What was it?

His existence was then thankfully turned towards the understanding of these pounding thoughts, much to the point that little else had ever, or would ever matter. With each strike against his awareness, he took in as much of the sensation as he could manage, dissecting it and examining its every quality. And without the meaning of time to help measure it, he could not tell how long it had taken him to do so, but eventually his thoughts brought together a new concept to ponder. These pounding waves that were not his own had been recognized by another memory from his prior existence, something which all too easily put an understanding to this newest puzzle.

What he was now enduring was yet another thought... an emotion. And such an emotion was... a sadness?

The question then formed up of how emotion could exist where nothing existed, bringing about the question of how existence could be possible at all if there was nothing to – he slammed the brakes on this train of thought before it could start itself up again, and was pleased to find that it had actually worked this time. Such pleasure, however, brought about the question of – again he stopped himself, although he this time took control of it before he could actually feel anything at all.

Setting aside and tightly locking away the thought that there was nothing in existence around him, he put his entire collection of thoughts towards pinpointing the source of the waves of pounding emotion. His own emotional state, if it could by this point be defined as such, was more akin to fear than anything. From this, he could most certainly affirm that it was not himself that felt this sadness, for the emotions from outside and from within were two separate concepts. This knowledge made the desire to locate the source of the sadness all the stronger.

There was something else defying the paradox of this place, of this he was sure. Something else, other than his own existence, but similar to his own at the same time, that had found its way here. The hammer of emotion and thought that he continually felt against his own existence was surely that of some other entity within this vast expanse. And whatever else it was that was here with him, it was crying. Knowing this, something rose up from within him that wanted to understand it and make it stop, at whatever the cost.

He moved in the direction of what he believed to be the origin of these emotions, realizing almost immediately that he had no actual method with which to move, nor any sense of direction with which to move to. He utilized every exercise of motion within his memory, attempting to control the entirety of his being to literally fling it in what he assumed was the correct direction, despite having already found that directions held no purpose within a world without reality. A sensation of irritation at his continued failure quickly began to build from within, which found itself being further amplified by the desire to be at where he needed to be right now.

It would have then been nice to know how he could have blocked out what he could only describe as an intolerable volume of sound, because his existence soon after found itself at the very source of the hammering sadness that he had sought. Each strike was an intolerable sensation at this range, the paradox of a lack of distance be damned. It was all he could do just to keep his wits against such a gruesome assault.

Yet for as quickly as he had found himself being under such an assault, it ended. In its place there came new waves of what also felt like an emotion, and these were blissfully more "quiet" by comparison. These new emotions he sifted through his memory to identify, though he grew irritated once again when he could not immediately find the answer. Thoughts then surfaced for him on their own, leading him to think that what he was sensing now was far more worse than the assault that he had previously endured. These emotions that he could sense were ones of confusion, perhaps even fear.

Whatever it was that he had found, it was now afraid of him.

Communication was what he needed next. He needed to be able to tell this new entity that he was no threat. Thankfully, his maelstrom of memories did not require searching for the answer, but rather once again gave up the suggestion of their own volition that he extend out his thoughts as one would a bridge. He was to try and close the gap between him and "it" to form a connection. Extend his arms out in open invitation, so to speak. Such was a similar technique to what he had once experienced with an odd, orange-colored creature that he could only attribute a strange annoyance to, but it seemed that such a technique would now prove useful. He would create a bridge of thought to connect his existence with this new one, and hopefully it would be able to follow his thoughts back and commune with him.

He stretched out instinctively, a feeling much like reaching an arm to a faraway object, and brushed a thread of his thoughts against the other existence. In the fraction of what should have been a second, he learned more than enough from it to know that he should be feeling far, far differently in his emotions than he was now. In response, new emotions rose up uncontrollably, extending in a range from blissful happiness to seething anger. Each spike of feeling threaded through him unchecked, and all with the emphasis of both the fear of failure and the sadness of regret at their forefront.

The second entity's own fear intensified greatly at the change in it's guest, as it was now likely even more unsure of his intentions than before. He immediately brought himself under control as a result, though it took a serious amount of effort to restrain his rampant emotions. But there was still something that he had to do, and in doing so such emotions would easily escape across the bridge of thought anyway, but creating such a bridge had to be done. He had to be sure.

Once again he reached out, the arm of his thoughts beckoning the other existence towards his own. And when he finally made contact again to verify his previous findings, he surprised himself by revealing only a singular emotion: pure happiness. This feeling was perfectly mimicked by his companion when she that he had found finally recognized that which had found her. He who had once been called Reios.

She who had once been called Tomoyo.


	83. Existence Within Paradox, pt 2

_-6b: Existence Within Paradox, pt. 2_

Once again he reached out, the arm of his thoughts beckoning the other existence towards his own. And when he finally made contact again to verify his previous findings, he surprised himself by revealing only a singular emotion: pure happiness. This feeling was perfectly mimicked by his companion when she that he had found finally recognized that which had found her. He who had once been called Reios.

She who had once been called Tomoyo.

Had they been in their previous world, he was sure that she would have been "crying with tears of joy", for these were the emotions that he could feel from across the link. Yet how powerful her emotions were was truly astounding to him. She probably would have embraced him tightly, as well, if not for the same physical restrictions that prevented her tears, though he could immediately sense that she was not exactly sure of what she was doing anyway. The only thing that she was truly certain of was that something familiar had found her, and that she was gladly welcoming such familiarity.

They wasted none of the non-existent time allotted to them, exchanging thought after thought of what had brought them both to this point. Or more specifically, she "listened" intently as as images and memories crossed over to her that attempted to explain his sudden appearance to her. He found himself providing the series of past events that had seen him brought to here, and of the story that explained the struggle that a certain someone was putting up for her. The reasons for such valiant efforts were painfully obvious to her, causing her to both revel in and weep with such realizations.

These specific feelings towards that certain someone filtered their way back across the link to make themselves known to him, and although he had known of their existence for quite some time, he still found himself quite amazed that they were such truthful, vibrant feelings. They were much like his own, he realized. Yet soon these feelings that he was feeling from her were replaced with confusion, and then after that were followed by a fit of surprise. Before he could realize what he had actually done – that is to say, within his amazement of having verified her feelings, he had let slip the control of his own – there came yet another feeling. One of a loving warmth and affection that he had never even thought possible.

That he had unknowingly sent his own feelings for her across the bridge of thought was an error. An error that he, at first, wholly regretted, for now things could not possibly remain the same as before. And although she did not return those feelings in equality (and he had known from almost the very start that she most likely would not), the feelings of kinship and belonging that he now felt from across the link somehow made him more contented than had she actually felt the same as him.

Then again, perhaps this was how he had always cared for her. There had been a similarity between the two of them, after all, that had been found on the very first day that they had met. Something that had not been explained or reasoned, but just plain understood: the knowledge that the assurance of happiness was greater than that of one's own personal desires. Even as they had walked their way together through the dangers of the past two weeks, that feeling had become more and more evolved over such a short period of time. It had soon grown into something far greater than that of just a simple friendship, and all without breaking the limits of emotion that such a mere friendship would entail.

A memory of past lives and words came to mind, and this was exchanged across the bridge of thought by them both: _The only devotion greater than that of duty is the devotion to one's family._

A kind of shuddering from his now-kindred spirit broke him free of the warmth of thought that he had wrapped them both within, bringing him to the awareness that there was a new problem building up. He admonished himself for not having sensed it sooner, and immediately knew that it was a direct result of being exposed to the continual paradox of non-existence within this place that they inhabited. By their old world's point of view, she had been here far longer than he, and so it made sense that she would be the first to suffer.

Her spiritual energy, if that was what they truly were now, was gradually decaying away into nothing. As a being of rules and reality, she was being slowly destroyed by this place which demanded that no reality exist.

Instinctively he tugged at the bridge of thought that linked them together, willing it to become more of a connecting chain that would bind them securely to each other. He did not fully comprehend what it was that he was doing, however, and such a lack of knowledge set the fear of the unknown into her. Yet what else was there left to do, aside from allow her to fully waste away and become nothing more than a forgotten thought? This was something that she did not wish for herself, and was something that he would not allow regardless.

So together they placed their trust in one another, and together they both pulled sharply at the chain of thought that kept them together. There was a valiant struggle involved on both of their ends, as they could both feel their subconscious minds fearfully resisting the results of their willful actions. But her trust in him, and his duty to protect her, allowed them both to fight their own inner individualities to eventually tie themselves together, to merge as one into a singular entity.

On the side, this hesitant and fear-filled resistance between their two souls allowed him to determine even more so that his feelings for her would never have been fully realized. It was as if their two souls had been incompatible with one another, so difficult was their joining, and yet they had still forced themselves to band together. Out of a necessity born of desperation, they were now as one.

The sensation of two minds within one unity was truly strange, to say the least, but somehow they managed to retain their individual senses of self. Such a retention of self-awareness was probably a by-product of the difficulties that they had been required to overcome, but in the end it served well towards his purpose. With the now unhindered access to each other's minds, he used this to his advantage to more easily guide her towards saving herself, showing her how to draw away the life essence of his half of their combined soul and utilize it to revitalize her own. The process was slow, even though he had to once again remind them both that time held no meaning here, but eventually her portion of their life essence was brought back to the point where it was no longer in danger of destruction.

Even so, there was now the understanding that they had only prolonged the inevitable. Eventually, even his own offerings to their life force would sooner or later begin to decay, all to restart the process that would set the both of them spiraling down towards the oblivion of nothingness that was already surrounding and devouring them. This did little to discourage her, however, and in fact he could sense that she actually felt at peace now. Once having believed that she was living in the happiest times of her life, she now realized that with the highest potential of her emotions having been fulfilled, she could leave her prior existence behind knowing that she had done all that she could. Besides, she was no longer alone, and in a way this made it so that she would not have to suffer the burden of loss all on her own.

They remained as such for whatever length of time the old world would have measured, content within each other's embrace and warmth of life. Death was no longer a frightening thought, them both having experienced it once already. A second coming of such a fate seemed insignificant in comparison to the struggles of their previous lives. Instead, they allowed their minds to drift away, committing themselves to the eternity of paradox-like existence until such a time as their spiritual form decayed away into the nothingness that surrounded them.

Or such was the case, at least, until she found herself being afflicted by the same flows of thought that he had been subjected to previous, soon finding herself unable to restrain the memories of her past. For every moment that she quieted their mind, more memories forced their way to the surface. For each attempt that she made to suppress them, yet more broke through her control to force themselves upon their consciousness. It was frustrating, that for as much as she wanted to accept what had been done and just move on, their mind would not allow her the comfort of rest.

He was quite aware of the struggle that she was putting up to control herself, as it was something that he had learned to control for himself, even though he still found himself at times suppressing memories that had come unbidden to him. But he did not want to invade upon what could be potentially private memories and so, for the most part, he left her to her own devices. Yet the disquiet that his other half was creating was more than enough to prevent their unity from settling into the absolution of the quietness that surrounded them, causing him to grow slightly curious of her struggles. Then, in his further curiosity towards a sudden outburst of frustration, he found that a memory of her own had made its way to him...

_ The feeling of a gentle and beloved hand held in one's own, walking slowly along a stone-worked path near the end of autumn. The shine of the evening sun as it broke through the multitude of branches and leaves of the park's forest canopy looming above, warming both the skin and heart alike. The splendor and glow of the multicolored leaves that as yet remained in their homes, covering away the source of sweet melodies from the birds that had yet to leave their nests to warmer climates. And the stare of sparkling emerald eyes as they turned to show the ever-energetic smile beneath them._

What little that had remained of his patience snapped within that one instance.

The apparent change in his mood was enough to distract her from her thoughts, giving her pause as she considered his frustrations over her own. She felt the impatience of the waiting grow within them, as though the end was not coming fast enough for him. She began to wonder if he had finally given up, if perhaps he was longing for the death that she had so feared before he had chanced upon her. She continued wondered as such until a new concept sprang up from his part of their mind: escape.

Immediately she questioned against such a possibility. From what she knew of their conjoined knowledge, they were within an absolute void, a world without time, existence, or reality. A world who's nature was to harbor no nature at all. In effect, they were dead, long since passed from their previous world and left without any ability to return. He could feel her hesitation towards his need, but he did not care for the reason or the cause that would lead to it. One way or the other, he would seek their path to freedom.

Ensuring to first protect her against the oncoming rush, he released his steadfast hold upon his memories. He beckoned them forth with as much haste as they had forced upon him originally and, as beckoned, they bombarded themselves upon him, striking him with memories both painful and joyous, infuriating and depressing. Through all of these, he sifted for the ones that he truly sought, ones that were dedicated to learning and knowledge. The memories, more specifically, that had been devoted to the remembrance of his research into magic. With these, he cross-referenced his memories of the one called Eriol, searching for any particular point of interest or noted conversation that could offer them a release from their prison.

Often he would see the answer lying ahead of him, and just as often he would grab at the path only to have it slip away into the recesses of their consciousness. She took note of the difficulties that he was dealing with, and attempted to draw upon their collective knowledge in some manner of assistance. Yet even with their combined efforts, it did little to shatter the question that had ingrained itself into his part of their mind: how would they find their way out?

Eventually she withdrew back into herself, no longer sure that there truly was any method of escape for them. He refused to give up, however, and remained devoted to chasing his memories down until he could wrest just the right amount of information that he needed. After a time, though, he grew despondent, even as he still continued on, but it was enough to drive her mental state into a deeper depression than the one that it had originally been in. In a world with no reality or existence, with no rules or laws of nature by which they could guide themselves, what could they possibly do? The absolution of hopeless was as certain as the absolution of non-existence.

It all fell into place

She noticed the change within him almost immediately, alongside the heartfelt yet utterly confusing praise that he was offering to her. Though she did her best to keep up, their mind was now flying far too fast for her to comprehend what it was that he had realized. But to him, the thought of a lack of existence was the real key to their own existence. Regardless that nothing around them was real, that nothing existed at all, there was still one truth to this place, which was that they themselves still existed. Within this truth, one rule would have remained to them: within the lack of nature and reality that now encompassed them, they were bound by no rules whatsoever.

An advantage within their hopelessness made itself available to him, and interestingly enough it hinged upon the belief that the non-existence of this place was absolute to a fault, something that he had refused to consider up until now in order to give himself meaning. Without knowing how, or without even considering the risks to his other self, he began to draw upon their actual life essence, forcing the start of its decay even as he manipulated that detached power into something that their mind would be able to directly control. A singular thought shot through from his memories, warning him that this course would lead to the destruction of them both, but he swept that thought aside almost immediately. What did it matter when they were both condemned to begin with?

He continued to unceasingly siphon upon their energy, being careful not to draw too much upon the portions that were sustaining her individuality, and molded it into an ambiguous form apart from them that he could then control. He could feel both of their conscious minds slipping away into emptiness for each portion of their life essence that he stole, and even so he continued to draw away from it until they had almost nothing left. All the while he continually nailed the idea into his thoughts that the world around them did not exist, and that reality did not exist. Nothing controlled them, nothing ruled them. He could believe in whatever he wished to.

At the last moment, when they were both upon the very cusp of extinction, he created an addendum to such thinking. Utilizing the "law of no laws" against itself, he considered instead that what he had been drawing from this whole time was not as empty as it seemed, but was once again overflowing with the essence of life, and immediately it became as such. The original strength of their life force was restored to them in full, but what he had originally drawn away from their unity also remained. Empowered by the knowledge that he had been proven right, that there were no rules to stop his wishful thinking from becoming truth, he redoubled his efforts. Drawing even more energy away from their combined life force than what was necessary, he placed it all into his newly created "storehouse" while still drawing away yet even more.

Again and again he repeated this procedure, exponentially reproducing enough quantities of spiritual energy such as they could have sustained their unity indefinitely, and still they would have had enough left over for the task at hand. With this in mind, he infused his other half with a generous portion of this energy, granting her back the entirety of her original life essence while being mindful not to burden her with an excess of power. Then, utilizing the massive amounts of power that was still left to them, he began to expand their consciousness out into the void with the intention of filling this supposedly infinite emptiness with their power. Once he was in control, he would create his own reality. It would be a reality that would grant them a return to their true world.

His created reality shoved back the infinite void as planned, pushing it further and further away from their thoughts until he believed that he had actually reached the limits of emptiness. Of course, he found the deception within this when such limits suddenly shot off once again into infinity, forcing him to recreate his power multiple times over and over again in order to refill the gap. It was a stalemated race, to be sure, a never-ending pursuit to find the limits of existence, but it was one that he pursued wholeheartedly.

Until, after a time, he finally found what he had for so long sought. Just outside the borders of the emptiness that they now controlled, there sat a rip within the very fabric of the Void. Yet another defiance against the concept of non-existence, that something would exist within it. He wasted not a single moment of his newly created reality, and expanded their consciousness even further out into the infinite lack of existence until that rip was within their reach. He could tell, once it was within their reach, that it truly was what he had sought after. The despicable presence that still surrounded such a thing made it all as plain as day to understand, this presence that his memories told him a most recent enemy would have left behind. This was their way home, without a doubt.

He called their collective thoughts together, and placed within them an importance upon the tear that had been discovered, wishing to move towards it much like how he had moved to find her. All at once they were at it, and almost immediately they were able to literally feel the stellar winds that were passing through it. Though such material things dissolved into nothingness just after crossing the dimensional boundary, it was still enough to solidify their belief that this was the path home. The only thing that remained to them now was to find a way to cross through it.

Taking the enormous power that he had created to form the false reality around them, he left only enough to allow them a small pocket of existence while compressing the rest of it into an impressively dense field of space around the tear. No small feat, that, considering the amount of life energy that he had actually created. Seeking to break the tear open completely with this power and create the widened doorway that they required, he exerted everything they had upon the field of energy that was threatening to crush the tear into nothing.

A moment later saw the majority of his controlled power swiped away from his grasp, sucked away into the tear that he had suddenly broken through only to have that power explode from directly within the tear's confines. Their unified spirit was similarly pulled through soon after, unable as it was to hold back against the torrential rush of his created near-infinite power being sucked back into reality. With all of the energy that he had put into breaking through the boundaries of non-reality and into reality, it was amazing that they had not been destroyed by the explosion that had opened up the tear for them.

Unable to stop the literal vacuum of power, they found themselves hurtling through the tear at an uncontrollable rate. He then tried to stop it, because he immediately after realized that at the exact moment they were to cross over to their original reality, he would be unable to keep her with him. Their spirits would be forced back into their original, divided states in order to comply with the laws and rules of existence, and that would make it all the more difficult to guide her back to where she belonged. Then, as he feared, the sudden reformation of space and time broke them apart harshly and without warning. They were once again separated entities, but that was not all. For all of the effort that he had put into maintaining the bridge of thought that had originally linked them before the joining, something within this world of reality caused it to weaken. It was as though it was never meant to have been a part of the grand design of things. But regardless of the reason, and with him unable to maintain its full connection, he found himself spiraling further and further away from her up until the point that they were both completely lost to each other.

Immediately he feared that he had done wrong, and that she was now lost for good. But he also knew that once he had returned to where he belonged, he would not give up. Regardless of the consequences, he would never stop until he had found her. She meant that much to him.

No, not just to him. To everyone.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	84. The Life, pt 2

_9-7: The Life, pt. 2_

He awakened within a familiar darkness, with the surrounding perpetual emptiness momentarily causing him concern about his potential lack of success in his escape attempt. Yet it did not take him long to realize that he was, once again, within the realm of his card's creation. Even more importantly, he was back within his own body, which he quickly verified by testing various parts of himself with his hands. But then, if he was back within his own body, had he then perhaps succeeded even more so than he had originally intended?

"No, my master, there is still some ways to go yet."

Reios spun about on the brightly toned and life-filled voice that had snuck up behind him, but oddly felt no anger or thoughts of betrayal coursing through him as he had originally suspected he would. Instead, there was just one question that burned through his mind, a burning that was further intensified by the little winged girl's bright and cheery smile which was a far and distant cry from her previously seen demeanor. So he held the card's disturbingly blank gaze with his own fiery stare in order to speak it.

"You knew all along, didn't you?" he interrogated, "All three of you 'dark cards' did, I bet."

"There was no other way that it could have been done without risking irreparable harm," she began, "If we had returned to here the soul that you had sought without first restoring what energy her life essence had lost to the degradation effects of the Void, there would have been no guarantee that the revival could have worked without a flaw. If anything, to have returned her here so prematurely would have most certainly caused a disastrous outcome, and so it was decided between the three of us that you, with the strongest connection to the energies of life itself, would be sent to retrieve her. This is why I specifically chose you, out of the several million souls that were within my reach, to wield the power of the Light and stand alongside your friends.

"Clow Reed was the one to have predicted all of this, however, not I or my two darkened siblings. Even though the future could have turned off in many different directions, he instilled upon us – the three negative cards – the ability to remember his commands should the proper course of events come about in such a way that they became necessary to fulfill. That we aid you now is both a testament to Clow Reed's power of foresight, and is as well his true final will: to do our own part to guarantee the survival of the one you so care about. Her survival, if successfully brought about, shall indirectly influence the survival of us, his children, and so is just as important as the survival of our true masters. This is his true purpose, and ours."

Life's cheery grin dimmed ever so slightly slightly, "The guarantee of her survival was solidified by your actions today. However..."

"The requirement of one's life, right?" Reios asked, "Take it. My life has always been devoted to duty, and my duty is to family. It shall continue to serve in this way."

"Yet life is something that you know of all too well, is it not?"

His bewilderment at her comment was not surprising to her, bringing forth in full that cheery smile once again. She continued, "You who has returned from the brink of death on numerous occasions. To repel the forces of lightning, then to be struck by that same force only to arise without a scratch. To escape the binding illusions of hopelessness, even after you had already given up on the world. To _twice_ return from what should have meant the end of you. This is the truest essence of the human spirit. It is the will of life, the instinctual drive that dwells within all beings – the desire to exist."

A reply came to him then, and even though he fully understood what it meant, he would never be able to fully comprehend why he just up and said it.

"Such is the power of Light."

The last of his words were marked by a cold and all-encompassing bubble of darkness, its ever-consuming emptiness encasing him within a prison of negative energy. Immediately he could feel his very soul being ripped away from him again, just like the first time, swiftly and without warning, and yet he did not cry out. Not from fear, nor from pain, though both greatly afflicted him all the same. Instead, he drew upon his inner strength, his inner light, and focused upon such things with everything that he had left. And with that light held tightly in hand, he placed his trust within it that there would always be life, and in so doing made it so that there always would be.

The negative energy bubble that had surrounded him fluctuated, rippled, and then exploded to pieces after trying vainly to devour the sheer volume of life essence that it had infused into itself. In it's greed to swallow away everything that he was, it destroyed itself, and in so doing took with it the world of darkness that was all around them. And as Reios's consciousness faded away, he heard from his card's childish voice one last time. The vibrancy of her lighthearted tones washed over him softly in the form of his own words.

_Such is the power of Light..._

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	85. End Result of Hope

_9-8a: End Result of Hope_

Even as his mind returned to him, Reios was filled with an awareness of all the things around him, and was practically blinded by the sheer intensity of the light that glowed from within such things. He could see and hear every human, every animal and insect, and every tree and flower. All of them were resonating brightly with a brilliant rainbow of vibrant color and sound. It was the orchestration of life, a painted scene of music that was both harmonic and discorded at the same time.

But he was taken over by an overwhelming need to breathe before he could contemplate any further of the beauty of life, coughing and gasping for air as if he had just surfaced from being nearly drowned. Another fit of gasps followed immediately afterwards, although they were not his own this time. He shortly after felt a supportive hand upon his shoulder, with another one brushing against his forehead momentarily. Both of these he ignored completely, and against his need to revive his lungs again, he pushed himself up off of the ground – he noted, disdainfully, that he was yet again lying face down on the cold cement – to look up at that which he had died for.

A true radiance shone its way from the empty vessel that was laying upon the trunk of the cherry tree, the one that was sitting just mere inches away from him, and that radiance was singing beautifully in tune with the rainbow of colors that was a part of the flow of all the life around him. He wept silently to himself for the sheer wonder of the display that he had been granted visions of.

"It worked," he whispered, his oxygen-deprived voice still unable to register anything louder, "It actually worked."

"Reios, are you all right!?" Sakura half shouted, kneeling above him and continuing to hold him supportively while Eriol finished his examinations, "I thought we'd lost you again!"

"This is impossible!" Eriol noted, taking away a glowing hand from Reios's forehead, "Everything that I felt from you not even a minute ago showed that you were completely dead! How have you revived yourself!?"

With both Sakura's and Eriol's assistance, Reios made it back to his feet in due time, all while laughing gently with a raspy voice, "Heh, impossible? So what is it that we're trying to do, then? And, actually, you _did_ lose me there, for a bit... I think. Not really too sure about what happened."

He straightened up and took control of his own sense of balance, finally allowing everyone a chance to stand back and look him over better. Sakura, in particular, seemed the most concerned, although she and everyone else most certainly had a good reason for it. After all, he had just _died_ right there in front of them.

She continually peered at him through the growing darkness of the evening, obviously attempting to discern something of his features. He turned to face her directly, smiling gently to her in genuine gratitude for her continued concern, and then, for some reason, she pulled back in utter shock.

"Reios... your...!"

He stared blankly at her for a moment, and then looked at Sakura's wide-eyed expression with confusion.

"My what?" he asked. He hesitated when there was no reply, and only Sakura continuing to stare at him with her alarmed features, so he asked with more insistence, "What?"

"Your...your eyes, they've..." she managed to stutter out slowly against her own stupefied mind.

Syaoran spotted the difference almost immediately after, "They're different!"

Reios began to panic, thinking that maybe his encounter with the Life card had changed him somehow. He pulled a different card from his pocket hastily, mentally willing its power into activity until he held before him the reflective form of the Mirror to examine his own face with an extreme scrutiny. At first, he could discern no differences that would have caused the outright panic his friends were displaying, other than that he looked completely healthy for someone who had just supposedly risen from the dead. Perhaps a little tired, maybe, which was overly obvious as he stared back into his heavy-lidded amethyst eyes. Yes, definitely tired, but certainly no noticeable differences such as to cause all this undue... wait a second.

Amethyst!?

"How the hell...!?" he muttered, his eyes flaring open more in amazement than with the need to examine them better, though examine them he did anyway. His irises, after all, were supposed to be _brown_, and not this dark purple that was now being presented to him.

Almost immediately, however, he came up with a solution, and started muttering to himself, "Maybe it was..."

"What did you do while with your card?" Eriol asked insistently.

Instinctively dispelling his Mirror card, Reios crossed his arms to think. He was hesitant on his reasoning, but he also intuitively knew that he was right. He eventually replied, "It's not so much 'with', but more like... in between? When she summoned me to her made up world, I was once again enveloped up in my damned childhood phobia of darkness and isolation. Between that and what was at first an insufferable lack of an emotional state, to say nothing of the conversational topic she picked, I ended up attacking her without thinking. In retrospect, though, I think she actually tried to provoke me, because she was all smiles and cheerfulness when I saw her again later. In any event, she defended herself by probably her only available means, and in a way I was made to suffer the same fate that Tomoyo had previously. My spiritual essence was soon banished away from its planetary existence by Life's void-derived powers."

"You attacked your own card!?" Syaoran bellowed, "Are you crazy!?"

"Yes I am, but that's not the point," Reios uttered back, "The point is that when I regained consciousness, I was in... it's like... well, it's kind of hard to explain, really. Everything was so awkward there. I existed, yet both myself and the world around me didn't, while at the same time I could tell that that world was there – contradiction upon contradiction. But then, regardless of that, I felt waves of... emotion, I guess, filtering through that void. And when I eventually managed to find its source... I found her."

Reios noted a spark of light within Sakura's eyes at the mention of finding someone, but there was more to be said. He turned to stare at Tomoyo's body before continuing, "She had weakened from her extended stay within a world that did not have the ability to support her. She was almost to the point where she would have dissipated completely had she been left there alone any longer. To prevent her eventual decay, I merged her spirit with my own and infused it with what energy that I had left. All just to delay the inevitable, if nothing else. Or at least, I think that's what I did. I was unable to come up with anything else at the time, or I wouldn't have done something so drastic. Mind you, with the state of mind that I was in, it was hard enough just to think straight."

Shaking off his internal questioning, Reios finished off his explanation, "In the end, though, we both became a singular entity – two minds within one spirit. It was a _really_ strange sensation."

"I see," Eriol intoned, "So by merging her with yourself to buy her more time, your spiritual identity was probably altered in some way. Your soul, it would seem, took on a physical change that would mirror her own appearance. You may also have gained other aspects of hers that may or may not yet reveal itself to us, or perhaps vice-versa as well. It is hard to say how such things can play out, sometimes.

"But that still leaves us the question: why did she not return to her body if you were able to regain yours? The three spells worked, I can feel it. Her body has been fully infused with all three of the qualities that the cards are meant to represent. If but for a soul to give her meaning, she would otherwise be considered alive by most medical physicians. Comatose, perhaps, but alive."

Reios shrugged slightly, "Maybe it was because a part of my physical self was yet linked to the still-active card? I don't know for sure. But... now that you mention it, I do remember taking her back with me when we tried to make our escape from that Void. We broke through a tear in the fabric of its space, the same one that that damned Eadric had sent her through in the first place. On our way through, though, we got separated–"

"And managed to botch such an important attempt!" a familiar Russian voice rang out from behind him, "An attempt, I might add, zat I had warned you vould be impossible in zee first place! And now, her spirit floats vhere? Tell us, vhere is she now!?"

"I thought I told you to keep quiet?" Reios called back in a relatively nonchalant manner, and in turn surprising himself immensely as such a calm display, though he refused to turn and look at her directly.

Anfisa stepped forward towards the four, becoming emboldened now that she had been proven correct, "Tell us, does she now breathe? Can she stand up for her own self? If spoken to, would she talk? You have no idea–!"

He turned about on her with a gaze fierce enough to set fire to anything he would put his stare to, with his right hand resting loosely against the leather-wrapped end of his katana. Having already had her life threatened once, Anfisa got the message practically immediately: any further words out of her, and she would lose her own ability to talk. Both literally and figuratively, she backed down from her argument before she could work herself up any further.

"As I was saying," he continued, holding his stare for a moment more before turning back, "we did get separated, but a part of me feels like it still has some kind of... connection to her. I think I can still find her."

"You can!?" Sakura asked sharply, "How!? Is there anything I can help with!?"

He did not answer her right away, as he was rather absorbed into his own thoughts after that. His eyes closed and his head bowed, he searched deep within himself, heeding her question but unable to as yet register it. Instead, he put his mind towards the corner of his soul that still remembered the union, the part of himself that could still recall her thoughts and emotions. It was with this that he finally detected the bridge of thought that he had created, weakened though it was from their passage through the tear in the void and into reality. Along this thread he began to carefully trace his way towards her, soaring up and through the clouds, and then seeking still outside of the planet's reach until he finally felt that familiar spark of life. His newly-colored eyes lit up to match his widening grin.

"There she is," he noted quietly, then looked up into the evening sky with a questioning squint, "But how did she...? That's odd. Her spirit is somewhere along Earth's orbital trail. It's as if her spirit _was_ returned here, but it couldn't keep up with the planet's natural movement. She was left behind."

"It is likely that her soul has been separated from its reality for too long," Eriol informed them, trailing his own senses along the mental thread that he could feel stretching away from Reios's mind, "It is not so much that it was willfully left behind, but more likely that it may have lost _all_ connections to its earthly bonds. Whereas you had the power of your Life card to bring you back to your body, there was nothing left at the time to tie her own soul to the planet that it belonged to. Still, it is possible that it could find its own way back, if this connection I sense between you and her is strong enough. She just needs some form of direction. Something that she would be familiar with, that we could call to her with and use to guide her across the emptiness of space."

Reios chuckled softly, "Well, that's easy enough. Sakura might even get to help, too."

He reached behind himself to access the tube-like leather carrying case strapped to his back, lifting it up and over his head to access it more easily. Zipping the case open, he pulled out the fully assembled, gold-plated flute that had been given to him as a collective gift to replace his original family heirloom. He toyed with the wings at the tip of the instrument momentarily before turning them fully out, by which point his two companions were both starting to get the idea.

Reios explained it to them anyway, "We both are familiar with song. It's as much a part of her blood as it is mine, and perhaps in more ways than one now. If there's a way that we can call to her through what's left of the mental bridge I created to her, then our mutual love for music just might draw here back here. I have a specific song in mind, as well, but to cover it we will need two more instruments. My flute will serve as the backdrop for setting the mood, but we'll still need piano and vocals as the primary melody. Who wants to volunteer?"

His eyes turned slowly towards Sakura as he finished his words, a strange glint reflecting within them to suggest that he knew the outcome of his questioning. Predictably, Sakura easily jumped at the chance, "My Song card can sing! It has Tomoyo's voice copied down perfectly, too!"

"And mine shall provide as your pianist," Eriol added in, "I assume that you want the song that we were working on at school?"

Reios nodded slowly, already engrossed as he was in recalling the first few fingerings that he would need for the start of the song. While he practiced silently at the flute intro specifically written for him, his two companions were already at work in summoning up their respective Song cards. Before long, they were all flanked by two female cards both robed in pink. The one under Sakura's power brushed her purple hair aside before cupping her hands in front of herself, while Eriol's blue-haired one removed her purple headband to hand it to her master. Reios supposed he should not have been so easily astonished by it, but he was nonetheless amazed when Eriol pulled at the headband to stretch it out into something like a small keyboard that started to float on its own once he let go of it.

Taking affirming nods from both Sakura and Eriol, he once again focused his thoughts into the one corner of his soul that still remembered it all. With his mind never leaving that part of himself, he lifted the flute to his lips in preparation to play, and let loose a soft and whistling wind.


	86. Calling to the Night

_9-8b: Calling to the Night_

Taking affirming nods from both Sakura and Eriol, he once again focused his thoughts into the one corner of his soul that still remembered it all. With his mind never leaving that part of himself, he lifted the flute to his lips in preparation to play, and let loose a soft and whistling wind.

Eriol began to peck at his makeshift keyboard even as Reios toned quietly into the song, his Englishman's hands gently striking at his Song's piano keys one note at a time and playing into a harmonic melody that both he Sakura knew only too well. She stepped back to stand beside Syaoran and watch the performance, giving the two musicians an audience to create their little orchestration, and more so to ensure that Reios and Eriol had the breathing room to work whatever magics they needed to. A fraction of a smile grew on her face at the fondness of the memories that began to surface, memories which intensified as the vocals came into play.

In the visage of Tomoyo's beautiful voice, Song began to sing melodically of sparkling golden stars. It was the same one that Song had originally copied from Tomoyo, the one that Tomoyo herself had learned during her grade four year in their school's choir group, and the one that she and her two partners were set to perform at the high school's recital near the end of the month. And now at last they were all getting the chance to hear a grown-up Tomoyo sing this childhood song, as Song's voice imitated not the Tomoyo of years ago, but the voice of who was now a young woman, the person that they were trying to save. What a wonder it would be if they could some day hear it all from that person herself.

Song continued along in her borrowed voice, singing of little birds that matched the color of those golden stars, staring at the sky within the singer's dream. This, right there, caught Sakura's attention, once again reminding her of those nightmares that she had suffered throughout these last two weeks, and of the little bird that she had been unable to save. But something did not quite feel right about those words, as they spoke of golden-feathered birds to match a golden-starred sky, because the bird in her dream had rather been of the purest white, much like how the real stars in a real night sky were colored. The song was quite obviously wrong, and this perspective allowed her to see the entirety of the song for what it really was – a beautiful but ultimately depressing and lonely song. And just like that it was no longer her favorite melody.

Sakura immediately sensed the thread of magic shooting its way out from within Reios's mind, snapping her out of her now-distasteful familiarity. She followed it as it trailed high above and into the night sky and then beyond, only to fade away at some faraway place that she would likely never be aware of. And whether it was purely instinctive, or whether it had been unknowingly guided by conscious thought, she was also immediately aware that she had linked her own being to that thread. Together with the powers that she could feel spiraling away from both Eriol and Reios, she helped to push it further along as they _all_ began their search for their important person.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

The words continued on as they described a sleepless night, and the words of a song sung alone. They toned quietly about thoughts sent along a soaring wind, and such was how the song broke away from the Earth to spread like wildfire across the once-silent emptiness of space.

It was somewhere within this expanse that something awoke, with it slowly becoming aware of herself simply by feeling those words resonate within her. At the same time, she also became vaguely aware of a connection to another essence that once had been much like herself, an entity set adrift into the sea of nothing. This other had promised to guide her back, she recalled, but then had lost her along their way home. For a time, she had believed herself as forgotten once more, her existence abandoned to the emptiness of yet another void-like realm. But now she knew that she had not been forgotten. Emboldened by the thought that someone was looking for her, she chased after those words eagerly and without hesitation, clinging to them as though they were the entirety of her existence.

Like the wildfire of song that had spread out and away towards her, something ignited from within that began to spread throughout her entire being: the will to live.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

The gentle calling of Reios's flute picked up again as he played out an underlying melody to Eriol's skill, offering an aura of serenity to the song. Then, for as suddenly as it had entered, he left the song as gently as he could, leaving room for the vocals to come back into the spotlight again.

Song resumed her performance anew with the worded image of the beautiful silvery moon, and then likened its coloring to the singular blooming rose within the singer's dream. A white rose. Fitting, perhaps, as this was the greatest likeness that Reios could attribute to her. A prime example of someone that anyone could look up to, humble in her opinions yet respected for her ability. Just one of the many things that had caused him to fall for her in the first place. It was an unrequited feeling that he would forever cherish, as it was this feeling that had lead him towards a sense of family that he supposed he had always longed for more than love itself.

There was a sudden tug on the line that he had created within his mind, allowing him to realize that she had understood their message and that she was trying to find them by using the same lifeline that connected them to each other. He pulled back on it in turn, to let her know that he was waiting. That they were all waiting.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

Melodies of the night continued to echo throughout the expansive emptiness of space, words and lulling notes that she followed eagerly so that she might come to fulfill their meaning. Words that described a desire to not be alone within the gentle night, but to sing at the stars together with the one that she cared for. She knew that for her to experience and cherish such dreams, she would one day be forced to lose it all again. But for as painful as it had been the first time to know that everything was being taken away from her, if she was allowed to return to her life and to live it together and sing it together with those that she loved, then she knew that it would be worth every moment of potential agony and loss that she could possibly encounter. And if not, then she would make it worth it.

Her mind lurched in an unknown direction as the hidden thread tied directly to her soul pulled at her without warning. It was a response to her curiosity at having discovered the song that she knew oh so well, and with that she knew that she was following _his_ thoughts. Only he could have called to her in this way, she knew, which made her all the more determined to find her way back.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

Eriol picked up the volume as he flew into his soloist routine, flowing through the melody of the song with a fluidic grace that he had planned on saving for the recital. With each chord that he struck, he could feel the approach of some unknown force as it followed along the line of thought that Reios had created, the one that he and Sakura had linked to. The one that was leading her to them.

Then Song repeated the last stanza within the song, once again singing of the desire to be together with those that the singer cared for. Eriol took this to heart, as it had been Clow Reed, of all people, who had risked so much to see her brought back. She, a person that was never meant to hold magic, and she was one of the keys to keeping that magic alive by simple virtue of her wanting to be with the one in control of that magic.

All so that Clow's children, the Cards, would never know sadness, Eriol renewed his vows right then and there to ensure that his predecessor's will would remain fulfilled. He would protect this family of magic, and its newest additions, with his very life.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

As the song wound its way towards its finishing touches, she quickly realized how out of place such a beautiful song was when compared to what she would soon regain. The song had spoken of loneliness and of dreams, of longing and of desires. These were things that she had once harbored, it was true, but now they were simple things that she no longer had to fear. Through the sacrifice of her own existence, she had defeated loneliness and fulfilled her dreams. The desires of her childhood were now truth, and not just empty wishes. Her favorite song no longer held any meaning for her, and it was pointless to hold onto something that was meaningless.

It was time to let go of the song, and to let go of her past. The beauty of her most favorite melody would hold her back no more.

She had only to suffer its words for a little while longer, as she used the remnants of its call to guide her back towards what felt like a familiar place. For as much as she could not see the Earth itself, she could still hear the callings of its welcoming embrace. It was beckoning its child back into its warmth just as much as the song had been beckoning her back to her loved ones. And for each soothing cry of relief created over her return, there was instilled within her a sense of peace, and also something that she had thought forever lost to her – a sense of hope.

She was going home.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	87. The Light of the Stars

_9-8c: The Light of the Stars_

Sakura could feel it getting stronger. Whatever it was that Reios had found, whatever it was that they had connected to with his thread of magic, it was getting closer and growing brighter. Before long she realized that she no longer even needed her inner senses to be able to tell where it was, because now she could actually see it: a glowing star descending upon them from the blue evening sky as though it were an angel cloaked within robes of shining light. And within that light, there rested a powerful familiarity to it all that allowed Sakura to understand her heart's newest feelings even further.

For as much as Syaoran was her true angel, she knew that what she saw hovering its way towards them was her true light.

It stopped only a meter above them, filling the immediate area with a small yet powerful radiance. Everyone that was present to witness this spectacle could feel a similar familiarity to it in their own way, and as such they knew that they were on the verge of success.

"In all my years..." Anfisa whispered to herself.

"Years mean nothing if you don't have the strength of will to believe in what you know to be true," Touya cut in, surprising all of them as he and Yukito stepped their way up to stand beside beside Kaho and her Russian friend, "I think my sister just proved that rather nicely."

Sakura could not help but turn back to smile at him for his support, even though she knew that she was going to be the target of much teasing later on for all of this.

The light around them flickered slightly, bringing her attention back to their main concern only to find that whatever spirit that was now with them had entirely enveloped Reios within its light. The man was glancing about himself almost in a panic, as a result, though he did not look to be overly concerned for it. If anything, Sakura could have sworn that she was seeing the faintest traces of his cheeks reddening up.

"Oh come on! You... hey, seriously, you don't have to do that!" he muttered, smiling to himself as his eyes closed up to hide his embarrassment, "I promised, didn't I?"

Sakura was already sure, but she had to ask anyway, "It's... is it...?"

Reios spread his arms wide in a gesture of welcome, and all at once the light was practically absorbed into himself. Sakura panicked for a moment at the sudden loss of light, but when she realized that she could still sense that spirit's presence, her nerves calmed. Then those nerves became utterly elated when Reios's eyes reopened and met up with her own. There was something within them that was pulling at her heart, something far different than the change in color that had recently taken to him.

That confident smile was still his own. The stance that he took was still something that she could attribute to him. But those eyes... they were different.

They were hers.

"No worries," he told her, sensing her apprehension, "she's still here. Or rather, she's in here," he added, tapping his chest to indicate his heart.

"Is she all right?" Sakura asked anxiously.

He shrugged slightly, "She's quite fine, at least as far as I can tell. Its not the same as the merging that we had taken to in that emptiness, but that's probably a good thing. She's only residing within me, merely using me as a protective shell, so I can't exactly say how she herself is feeling. I don't have any actual connection to her mind this time. I should think that she's as anxious to get this over with as the rest of us are, though."

For one brief moment, his eyes glazed over and became his own again, just long enough for him to turn and offer a rather smug grin towards the two ladies waiting nearby. Or, rather, to that certain Russian person in particular. Despite herself and her stubbornness, Anfisa could not help but smile back at him, but in a more kindly manner than he was offering. She even seemed to nod approvingly to him.

When those eyes turned back to Sakura, they were once again a reflection of the soul that was "borrowing" Reios's body, and it was something that Sakura desperately wanted to see from that soul's original body. This prompted the question, "So how do we get her back to where she belongs?"

Eriol stepped up to the plate for this one, "An unprotected soul cannot survive within reality without a physical form to give it sustenance, unless it has 'legitimately' passed on and is meaning to return to its origins within nature. As such, she has gone into Reios's body to support herself, but in so doing she has now effectively trapped herself there. To remove her, we will have to utilize a go-between of sorts to draw out her spiritual essence, and then combine that with the three negative cards to deposit her back into her original body. It will need to be an object capable of holding an overwhelmingly abundant amount of magic, mind you."

Eriol stopped to think for a moment, then continued, "One of our transformed keys could probably work as an acceptable conduit, but there will be repercussions from using them. As they are magical by nature, they would make the most viable vessel for the transference. However, their natural tendency towards manipulating magic may or may not have an adverse effect on her."

Reios raised his hand to hold up the lecture, "Wait, wait. This... go-between, as you call it..."

He pulled his left arm back to idly toy with the tip of the staff-like katana that was tied to his side, then finished his question "...can it be anything?"

Eriol tilted his head to look at Reios with a side glance, "The human soul is comparable in strength to the most powerful of spells that either myself or Clow Reed could ever think of attempting. As long as the conduit can survive manipulating that much energy, it... should be... possible..."

Eriol's eyes peered more directly in Reios's direction as his words trailed off, his educated mind picking up on the man's meaning long before anyone else had even understood Reios's intentions. It was then made all the more obvious when Reios placed the whole of his right hand to the handle of the blade, loosing it slightly from its home with his left thumb.

"You cannot be serious," Eriol argued, aghast at the thought.

"Is there any other choice?" Reios asked, though he himself hesitated a moment more before he pulled the katana fully away from its sheath to stare at it in consideration, "This sword hasn't been enhanced with any magic. It's just a typical, commonplace, folded-steel katana. But I've used a spell on it before. Remember the Watery attack that I tried to use on that Richard person? If I remember your explanations correctly, the top-level elemental cards are some of the strongest spells that Clow Reed had ever designed. If my katana can hold up to that, then its our best shot."

Eriol shook his head, and placed into his voice a strong tone of command, "No, you will not. To use a non-magical item as the conduit of transfer would require that its primary purpose be put into play to make it work. A sword, being something that primarily injures and kills, would require _full_ physical contact to draw out her spirit from you."

Sakura did not pretend to fully understand what Eriol was talking about with conduits (and for that matter, neither did Reios), but she very well understood what Eriol was getting at by physical contact with a sword.

She cried out at Reios, "You can't! You shouldn't have to... to...!"

"Sacrifice myself?" Reios finished, a witty grin plastered onto his face, "Well, far be it for me to deny death another shot at me. But if it'll forgive my bluntness, the third time is supposed to be the charm, so I think it's had enough chances. Besides, I don't intend on actually dying until I get to see her standing again."

Syaoran crossed his arms in annoyance, "I admire your courage, but not even you could survive getting run through. There's a difference between facing disaster and charging at it head on, you know."

Reios shook his head slowly, "I don't care. Even if the wound ends up being fatal, I'll make sure to live long enough to see her eyes open up again. It'll be worth it if I can see at least that."

Not wanting to look him straight in the eye after having to hear his supposed plan, Sakura thus failed to notice right away that Reios had stepped his way closer to her as he was speaking. When she finally did turn her head to see what he wanted, her eyes widened in horror as to what Reios was offering to her. His katana, as if by some sick idea of a joke, was being held in his arms handle first towards her. He was offering the weapon to her.

"Take it," he uttered simply, "It should be your hand that brings her back. No one else deserves that chance."

Sakura's hand reached out to grab at the katana's grip before she even knew what she was doing, but still she hesitated. For several seconds she held her place without moving a muscle, her mind completely devoid of any and all thoughts. She just stood there, staring at the blade with empty eyes, caught up within the moment. There was only her, the sword, and emptiness.

Just as instinctively she let go of the blade and shoved him away, turning her entire body aside so as not to have to deal with any of it, "No, I won't do it! Not to you, not to anyone!"

Reios did not let up, and came back to her just as before, "Look. If there's one thing that I finally understand, it's that my uncanny ability to dodge death was all meant for this one moment. That prophecy, it was meant to goad me into surviving so that I would be here for this one moment. I am certain of it. I've already given away most of my life to return her here, and I still have plenty more to spare. I don't see the sense in holding back the rest."

Yet still she hesitated, fighting with both herself and the desire to just stop thinking about it so that she might try to understand what it was that she really wanted. It was true that she longed to see that smile again. She wanted to see those eyes from her best friend, her love, more than anything else in the world. It was simply not the same when that gaze was coming from just her good friend. But was all of this worth having to take the life of that good friend? Was she really being asked to sacrifice him for her own desires?

Without thought her hand took to the sword again, her entire body turning back to face the possibilities. However, she again gave in to great hesitation. Was she really even considering this? Her hands were literally shaking under the weight of indecisiveness, with the fear that either choice would result in the loss of hope. Could she forgive herself if she chose either path, allowing one soul to die so that the other might live? Would Reios forgive her? Would Tomoyo?

A feeling of gentleness brought her gaze back to Reios's amethyst eyes, and for a moment she could not tell whom exactly she was truly looking at. But then, when he spoke, she figured it out: it was both of them.

_Their_ eyes remained steadfast upon her, "If you're hoping for forgiveness from anyone in particular, be it past, present, or future, you're not going to get it... because there's none in need of giving. None of this was your fault. It never was. All of this that has been forced upon us was out of our control. They were not paths of our choosing, the things that caused us to be here today. The only things we will ever be responsible for are actions of our own design, and the only action you need to be responsible for, right now, is to see our dear Tomoyo alive and well."

His gentle smile dropped away sharply to match the equal sharpness of pain that had entered the left side of his chest, just below his heart. He did not need to look down to confirm what had transpired, but instead stubbornly kept his line of sight held straight ahead towards the one that had finally run him through. The one person that had at last succeeded in taking his life. Yet it was with regret that he found her cowering away from her feat, her eyes closed and face turned away, her features scrunched up in a mimicry of mental misery. He was truly saddened that he could not show her how truly happy he was that it would turn out this way, and the pain that now coursed all throughout his body made him unable to speak out and alert her of his feelings.

The gasp that escaped his lips only a millisecond after the thrust brought Sakura back to her senses, her eyes snapping open to view her horrible handiwork. It was something that she knew would likely give her nightmares for the longest time to come, if not for the rest of her life. The view of her own hand impaling the body of another with an instrument of murder and death. The view of her own hand taking the life of another human, another friend. And this time, there was no questioning her guilt of the act.

Reios's pain noticeably increased as he began to unconsciously double over, with the point of the sword making itself fully known to his insides as it pushed its way deeper into him. It took the entirety of his willpower to force himself to stand back upright, and all of his concentration after that just to remain that way. Forcing his lungs to work, to expand out and draw in air against the building pressure of the metallic weapon that held its place in his chest, he breathed out in a hoarse whisper, "I pro-mised... to... br... bring you... home... now g-go..."

The katana undertook a glow to match both the beckoning of his words as well as the strength of the visiting spirit's life essence, and along with that glow there also flowed into his wound a familiar warmth of kindness that he had felt from it several times before. He could tell that, as a parting gift, it was directly easing the pain of the steel that was scraping at his ribs, and it was something that he was completely grateful for.

Sakura could also feel that same warmth of life now flowing within the leather-wrapped handle of the blade, as well, and pulled the sword away from his chest only when she was absolutely certain that not only had the spirit fully taken to the blade, but also that that same blade would cause no further harm to Reios.

"I hadn't expected... that to hurt so much at first... heh-heh... heh," he muttered quietly through the now dulled pain, a silly grin on his face despite the predicament that he now found himself in. His shaking hand rose up slowly to find the cut in his half-burnt costume where the sword had entered, and felt around gently beneath the silken shirt to test the severity of the wound.

He searched for a moment until he realized that the unbearable and agonizing pain of being stabbed was now feeling more and more like a mere pinprick, something that was verified when he could not discern any kind of cut or opening in his chest with his fingers. He pulled his hand away sharply, expecting for there to be blood covering his hand, only to find that there was none. A quick glance to the tip of the sword still held in Sakura's hands also revealed no crimson red. His second surprise came when he visually inspected the wound directly only to find that there was no actual wound at all. Not even a scar had remained behind. Only tattered clothing and skin were visible.

"How the hell...!?" he began, but stopped short when a thought crossed his mind about the warmth that he had felt just as the pain had started to lift. He cocked his head and stared at the glowing, bladed part of his sword as it was held by Sakura, and remarked, "Oh, you're a sneaky little one. I'll give you that."

"What?" Sakura asked cautiously, just at that moment noticing the lack of any injury for herself. But that was not her problem, oddly. Rather, she had been unable to make any sense of his words just now. He was using English again.

Reios quickly checked his choice of language, "No, not you... well, err... bah, never mind. Anyway... care to explain this one?"

His question was undoubtedly being directed at Eriol, who answered simply, "Recall that you once told us about the oath that you had sworn upon your sword, such that it would never draw innocent blood. That would seem to be the case here."

Reios raised a ridiculing eyebrow at his English counterpart, "But it's just an ordinary sword! How could it–! No, you know what? Forget it. I'm not going to argue with what works."

Eriol nodded sharply, "Good. Now hurry up and finish the transfer before her spirit begins to decay. An inanimate object will not support her for very long."

"What do I do?" Sakura asked him hurriedly, now worried that she was taking too long.

"It is your magic that is in control," Eriol replied to her, "It is your magic that must decide the outcome."

It was as such that her magic made itself known to them when her cards flew out of the side pocket of her dress on their own, one by one forming a circle first above her head, and then altering their course until they were circling a path around the three negative cards that still continued to hover nearby Tomoyo's body. Their sealed forms all began to glow intensely as each one joined in with the parade, as they willingly allowed their power and light to be absorbed into the three negative cards. It was not long before the other cards belonging to both Eriol and Reios also took to the skies for themselves, joining in with the Sakura Cards in the same manner to form one gigantic halo of light that had by now encircled the whole of the ancient cherry tree's trunk. Circumstances aside, it was a beautiful sight to behold.

"Well, that answers that," Reios noted, "It looks like they want to help."

She could not wait any longer. Blocking all further distraction and thought from her mind, Sakura drew upon the powers of all the cards floating above them and allowed them to guide her actions. Her path took her to stand just in front of the cherry tree where Tomoyo rested, the katana's bladed edge lowering ever so slowly to hover just above Tomoyo's head. Yet uncertainty still managed to stall her movements, even now when she was so close, her arm tensing as if to pull away. She wondered if perhaps she was about to–

_Sakura._

All doubt fled her mind upon hearing that singular call from the weapon within her hands. This was what she wanted. This was what they both wanted. She smiled warmly, then, for reasons known only to her. A gentle smile that was meant only for two persons in the entire world. She allowed herself that one moment of gentleness before staunch determination was required to overtake her facial features once more.

_Please, take her back,_ she whispered silently in prayer,_ If anything is listening, let her come back..._

Reios planted his sword hard into the ground before him, "Give to her the strength to face a new journey! Life!"

Eriol lifted his staff into the air, "Grant an ending to the journey that has already ended! Death!"

Sakura raised both her staff and Reios's sword into the air above her fallen love...

"Allow her a future to seek both journey and end! Hope!"

Every single card above them flashed brightly in a display of magical power, filtering such energies as they could provide into the three negative cards that they surrounded. The total power of all one hundred fifty-six cards, combined together with the balancing force of the three negative cards, became a visible linking chain that bound the three cards together in a triangular formation above Tomoyo's head, which itself was now awash within a prismatic pillar of rainbow light. That light, which was emanating from the three cards like a pointed flashlight, began to expand outwards slowly, encompassing ever more of her body until it had taken up almost all of her entirely.

An invisible pull upon the katana followed, and Sakura realized that the life force that had been held within it was being swiftly drained away, pulled away from its containment and into the light that had practically consumed Tomoyo's whole body. Yet despite the opaqueness of that column of light, they were all still able to see it: an unknown apparition of sorts, though Sakura knew without a doubt as to its true identity. The apparition within that light floated upwards into the very center of the triangle formed by the three cards, drawn there by the excessive force of magic that the three spells were working.

A moment's wait saw that apparition being split into three separate parts, all of which were soon sent flying away from the three cards in a triple-helix spiral, and each part flaring brightly as they descended upon the body laying in wait below them. They contacted the body simultaneously, with the action of forcing their way into their original places causing a strong blast of light and energy to emanate out from it. Yet even against that light, Sakura could have sworn that she had seen the slightest signs of movement.

As the searing light faded away, it was replaced by a gentler, kinder glow. An essence of magic had begun to lift Tomoyo's body up and away from the ground, and soon it had her floating in mid air before them, held aloft like a holy angel that was attempting to awaken. As majestic as the scene was to all of them, Tomoyo was just as quickly returned to the ground. They immediately noted that she was left on her feet, and that she was standing under her own strength. The light that had engulfed her disappeared completely to leave her alone, as what was borrowed magic was then returned to the cards that had themselves made their way unnoticed back into the hands of their masters.

Everyone gave a start at a sudden and sharp intake of breath. It was the first breath of her new life, and it came accompanied by the fluttering of amethyst eyes as she started to scan the area around her slowly. The blur of darkness faded quickly as her eyes adjusted to the evening light, replaced instead by the view of her closest friends that were gathered all around her. One view in particular took to her interest, and she noted that Reios was looking to her with a far more kindly expression than she would normally have thought him capable of, what with the warm smile accentuating his dark-colored amethyst eyes. Realizing that change in color was of a slight shock to her, as she knew that he was supposed to have brown eyes. But this mattered little, as she was also fully aware of their newfound bond between themselves. Such was also the likely reason behind his beaming face, and she could not help but reciprocate the look.

But there was another smile that she she knew she had to give. A smile that was far more important and meaningful. One that she was forced to reserve for that one specific person. Forced, really, because that one person had soon after rushed forward uncontrollably into her, burying their face insistently into her left shoulder.

Sakura did her best to keep herself silent, wishing not to ruin the mood with somber feelings. Yet wishing did little to hold back her quivering and sobbing as she hugged at Tomoyo like she was hanging on for dear life. Tomoyo, in turn, held her newfound love all the closer to try and keep her still, cradling Sakura's head with her shoulder and caressing that wonderful auburn hair with a kindly hand, although this was more so meant to distract Tomoyo from her own quivers and sobs that were threatening to escape her.

Thanks to such a blessed reunion, however, the awareness of reality ended up striking at Tomoyo far later than she would have anticipated. She was eventually forced to break her precious embrace in order to seek answers.

"How did...?" she stammered, not exactly sure of where, or how, to start, "I was... was..."

"Ah-ah, no more talk of that," Reios cut her off, his kindly smile transforming back into his more typical roguish grin, "You're back with us. That's all that matters now."

She smiled to him in silent gratitude, though just as quickly put a voice to her feelings, "Then, thank you... for bringing me back. For letting me have another chance. For... for everything. Thank you."

Reios shook his head gently, "And don't be thanking me, either. You did all the hard work for yourself: surviving, persevering; pursuing the truth that came from the heart. You came back by your own strength. I merely gave you the directions you needed to follow that path. Or at least, I _think_ that's what I did..."

Tomoyo's face drew blank with curiosity, "But then, who was calling to me...?"

He grinned mischievously at her again, "Who do you think? Who is the one person here with enough power to do what we did here today? Who else would have had the overwhelming desire to bring you back against all possible odds?"

Sakura's head snapped up with a start, recalling what it was that Hope had told her.

_You, who's feelings have the power to change even the very world around you._

Her eyes met with Tomoyo's for the first time since that day's whole ordeal had begun, and without even being aware of it she had taken her love's hands into her own. It was within that momentary gaze and exhilarating warmth that she finally and fully understood of the truth of those words. Yet, even then, there was something else to be said that even they did not convey.

Sakura broke away from those wonderful eyes, and reluctantly at that, to face those with her, though she made very sure that her hand never left contact with Tomoyo's. Closing her eyes to search within herself for the words, she spoke, "That's not entirely true. We all played a part in this, not just me. We would never have been able to pull this off without each other's support. _I_ would never have gotten a second chance to show my feelings without any of you by my side. If anything, I should be the one saying thank you."

Sakura then had a thought, and giggled quietly to herself, "But then... this complicates things. I'm not sure how easy it'll be to love two different people."

Eriol looked at her with an observant eye, "It will be easy because it _is_ you. It is why Clow Reed chose you, out of the several billion people upon this world, to care for his 'children' in the first place. Your heart is vast. It is perhaps the kindest that any one person could ever hope to find. I dare say that it should not be too hard to find the room for all of the feelings that surround you. That the sources of these feelings are themselves close friends with unbreakable bonds should only make such feelings all the stronger for it."

Held within those words of support, Sakura's free hand unconsciously sought out for her life's first companion. A hand for each seemed to be reasonable enough, as long as they were both willing. Syaoran took up and squeezed that hand gently as if to put an answer to that request, passing on to her an assurance of his trust and belief in her, his feelings equally mirrored in the expression that she could see from him. It was this trust and belief that she passed on through to her other hand, and from there she found the exact same expression present within the eyes and loving smile of her life's second companion. Cradled within this trust, there was reached between the three of them a silent agreement – to care for one another, as a loving family should.

Sakura's eyes trailed away slowly from the two lights of her heart, turning ever upwards to seek above them the light of her spirit. In the granting of her wish, together the three of them found the first star of the night sky making its light known to the darkness above them. A star of hope.

A hope for the future.

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_End, Chapter 9_


	88. Family Bonds

**Epilogue – Future Course  


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10-1: Family Bonds_

Rika, after much hesitation, simply brought the question straight out, "Do you think they'll be back some day?"

More hesitation followed, understandably, but Sakura soon enough answered her, "Eriol was only here on... err, family business, and was able to arrange a temporary transfer to a school here to keep up with his studies. It's sad, but he'll be staying in England from here on out, I think."

Such a reply visibly disheartened Rika's demeanor slightly, but it was to be expected. It seemed to Rika that Eriol was often on the move, with family affairs taking him to one part of the world or another, but she was still having a hard time adjusting to the fact that he had taken his leave of them again. Of course, it was always that way whenever good friends were forced to part.

"And what about Reios?"

The tension in the air after Rika's next question was immediately apparent, stopping not only Sakura in her tracks, but Tomoyo as well. Just prior to entering the high school's front doors, both Rika and Syaoran rounded about on the two behind them with an understandable concern, even though Syaoran was already quite aware of the problem that had stalled the two girls.

"Well... that is..." Sakura stuttered quietly.

Rika knew that it would have been best to leave it well enough alone right there. The fact that Sakura could not maintain eye contact without growing nervous was easily an indication of that. Yet she still could not help but stare at Sakura questioningly, for once letting her curiosity getting the better of her. But whether Sakura would have eventually divulged what information she knew willingly, or if her staring had had something to do with the following reply, Rika would never be sure.

"His grandfather is dying," was that reply, though they were all surprised to hear Tomoyo as the one to speak it.

Rika was instantly sorry for having asked, and for multiple reasons, the primary of which was that the cheerful mood that had been established only minutes ago had now been effectively destroyed. The other reason had to do with the knowledge that one of her friends was now suffering. It was not exactly the kind of thing that she liked to hear about first thing in the morning, but when was such a thing ever good to hear about?

"I hope he'll be all right..." she muttered.

Sakura forced out a cheerful smile in a small attempt at brightening the mood, "He said that he might end up remaining back overseas for a long time if he ends up having to take care of his grandfather. But he said that he would keep writing to us, too, for as long as he was over there."

Rika saw through Sakura's imitated smile almost immediately, but she did not let on, "That's good."

Then again, Sakura also saw through the imitation of relief that Rika had shown, so she added on, "It'll be fine, really! He knew he was probably going to be sad for a while, so he asked us to be cheerful for him. I intend to do just that!"

Tomoyo could not help but grin inwardly at that last part. While it was true that Reios had actually said such a thing, it was also true that it had taken a great deal of convincing on Tomoyo's part to make him actually go and tend to his ailing grandfather. She honestly wondered at whether or not he would actually be able to make up with his ailing relative, the man that represented everything Reios hated about his old life. At the same time, though, she was wholly confident that he would. After all, it was Reios's favorite saying: _devotion to family._ That had been her winning argument when she, along with the recruited help of Sakura, had talked to him one night together for almost two hours straight.

Sakura had never realized until then at how strong-willed Tomoyo could get when the dark-haired girl wanted to be. It was scary, almost.

Sakura exchanged a pair of meaningful glances to both Syaoran and Tomoyo to see them both in agreement of wanting to remain cheerful for Reios, and in turn felt herself cheer up a bit as a result. Still, she could not help but think of how Reios was faring, as all this talk of him was ultimately prone to forcing such thoughts. He had left Japan a little over a week ago, allowing Tomoyo's family company to fly him over on a charter flight directly to the hospital where his grandfather had been admitted to. He would have already been settled in by this point, and was possibly even caring for his ailing relative by now. Or at least, such was her hopeful, best-case scenario for him.

She glanced up as best as she could into the glaring morning sun, the physical representation of his magic, before ushering herself into the building for morning classes.

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Rather, it had taken him several days after his arrival just to work up the courage to go see his grandfather, despite the fact that he knew he would eventually have to anyway just to square away some legal issues. He had used every excuse in the book to avoid having to take up this mission, the most prevalent (and valid) of which was that he did not want to unexpectedly run into other family members while visiting. But now his book of excuses had run dry, and he at last found himself staring at the front doors of the hospital in question. That was when he felt a strange sensation coming from the late-evening sun behind him.

How he had managed to feel Sakura looking at him, as he stood in the hospital's parking lot, was a wholly confounding mystery to him. How he had even known that it was her in the first place was even more so of a confusion, though he was all the same absolutely certain that she was thinking of him. That they all were. It was this sensation of being watched that was now finally convincing him to actually take that last step into the hospital itself. They were behind him, thinking of him, and supporting him. With all of the insistent urging that they were giving him, he really did not have much of a choice in the matter.

Tomoyo was likely to be cross with him if he were to fail in this final duty, anyway. This consequence was to be avoided at _all_ costs.

The hospital room that he eventually came to was barren of any life-like color, and only allowed for a yellow-tinted vase filled with a self-contrasting and colorful array of flowers to brighten the room. It sat upon a windowsill that itself was overlooking the hospital's beautifully tended-to inner courtyard, another well-meaning yet poorly placed attempt at livening the scene. Beyond that, the room only contained the dull colors of gray walls and blue curtains, a palate of color that he was very thankful to have had so little experience with. To make things worse, the incessant presence of the machinery set around the two beds and along the one wall behind them was refusing both the flowers and the outdoor scenery any modicum of success in their task of making the room any less morbid.

On the first of those two beds that inhabited the room was where the balded and freckled old man was laying, sleeping soundly as though all was normal. Of course, just the sight of him stirred unwanted memories in the back of Reios's mind, thoughts and images that he struggled vainly with to put to rest. The last time he had seen that old man, Reios had sworn in a violent and childish rage that he would never return again, that he would never have anything to do with that old man or the family he represented ever again. Strange that, even with such vows, he now found himself returned to the old man's side. All the same, he also felt that he could not afford to harbor such intentions anymore, which was a whole other unbeatable battle in and of itself.

With the utmost care, he pulled up a chair from the far end of the room and seated himself at the side of the bed. It took him a moment or two afterwards to realize it, but it seemed to be that his grandfather was resting rather comfortably. Not exactly a bad thing, even for him, but it otherwise seemed extremely unusual for someone who had just been admitted for a life-threatening condition, and most especially considering that – Reios paused. What exactly was it that his grandfather had been admitted for, again?

His staring off into space to consider the problem removed his ability to remain cognizant of his surroundings. By the time that he realized that he was being watched, his grandfather had already propped himself up in the bed and was staring at Reios with a humorous gleam in his eyes.

"How did you..." Reios started, then shook his head to reprove himself, "Well, you always were the deceptive one. How long have you been staring at me like– wait, how are you even awake at all!? You're supposed to be deathly ill!"

"C'mon boy, you haven't figured it out yet?" the old man asked, the light and melodic tone in his voice refusing to betray neither his age nor his supposed condition.

Reios crossed his arms in annoyance, "Well, you didn't exactly leave me any useful clues, but I had my suspicions. So, when were you planning to tell me that I could use magic? If you ever intended to, that is."

"Hey, I know I raised you a bit better than that. Now think a little, because I did tell you," the old man quipped, poking his finger at Reios to emphasize his case, "Three weeks ago, even!"

Without even realizing it, they had locked each other into a staring contest, one that Reios was quickly compelled to break off. He instead asked, "And you never thought to tell me sooner? You're lucky I even believed that little space-dream... delusion... place. Whatever it was."

"And _you_ never thought that I, just maybe, kept it a secret from you on purpose?" his grandfather asked in turn. The resultant confused look on Reios's face seemed to amuse him, a fact that had Reios growing fairly impatient.

"You always were a stubborn one," the old man noted, "A trait from my side of the family, unfortunately. Getting you to do something you didn't want to do was like pulling teeth out of a lion's mouth. You were needed somewhere. You were required to be there to fulfill a purpose, and you wouldn't very well be able to do that if you had chosen to remain at home, buried within your books."

Reios's did not break off his staring this time, "So you're saying that you intentionally created a rift between us? You could have just told me about it!"

The grandfather huffed a small laugh to himself, "Like I said, boy, you were stubborn. You were so caught up in your damned studies that if I had told you anything at all, you would have done everything you could to stay put and keep reading instead of going over to wherever it is you went and actually taken part in it. Japan, right? And I must say, your time over there has improved your mannerisms rather significantly from the shouting-and-swearing fourteen year old child that I used to know. Now, let's see your pendant."

Reios was easily taken aback, "Hey, don't change the topic!"

"Don't keep an old man waiting. The pendant, boy!"

Irritation gnawed away at Reios sharply; the lion with its teeth intact. Caution had to actually force its way through to the surface to allow contemplation to overtake him. He had to remind himself of the consequences of showing someone his new key, even if that someone seemed to know practically everything that had taken place over the past three weeks.

"I'm dying, remember?," his grandfather reminded him, all while wiggling his fingers to insist that Reios hand the pendant over, "Who am I going to tell?"

"What are you, now? A mind reader?" Reios shot back, finally reaching around behind his neck to unclasp the silver snake chain that held his key in place. He passed the key, chain and all, over to the old man without so much as a glance.

"No, I'm your grandfather," the old man returned sharply, then added pointedly, "whether you like it or not."

Reios turned his view to glare at his grandfather through squinted eyelids, knowing full well that his grandfather was just egging him on at this point. It was a long, drawn out moment of tension – and oddly enough, curiosity – before the silence was broken by the cause of that tension, "Well, I see she didn't waste any time. Broke my seal on this thing not even a minute after I told her to, and here I had designed the magic to last for decades. How long did it take you to figure it all out, hmm? That same night with the nice elf lady? Or perhaps the next night with that giant bird?"

"Let me ask you a better question," Reios asked touchily, "How the hell do you know about all of that?"

A swift breeze shot through the room before the old man could answer, prompting Reios to rise from his chair with the intention of closing the window on the far side of the room. His only problem in that regard was that the window was already closed, and even the curtains were completely still. Through the glass, he could see that it was the calmest springtime evening that anyone could hope for, with not a single leaf stirring in the trees. Absolutely still.

Again a breeze shot through the room to belie all that he had just verified, except that this time he also caught a thread of magic linked to that wind.

The old man chuckled heartily at the visible onset of his grandson's confusion, "The wind and air are all-encompassing. As a sorcerer of the winds, it both serves and beckons to me constantly. What it knows, I can also know; what I know, it can tell to others. How do you think that Mr. Quillen fella' got a hold of your last name?"

Instead of feeling amazed or surprised, Reios merely sat back down into his chair, "So what's the point of me telling you everything if you already know all about it?"

"Because I want to hear _your_ version of it, to listen to your stories and take part in the memories that I was never allowed to share. I want to know whether or not everything I've done up until now was the right thing to do," the balded old replied, only to receive a rather vexed snort in the process. Reios refused to grant his grandfather the benefit of being the smarter of the two, and chose to keep his mouth shut instead of offering to tell everything that the old man already knew.

Yet his stubbornness only gave his grandfather the perfect excuse to keep talking, "This pendant was a gift from an old friend of mine. It had been handed down from _his _friend, and from that friend before him for some number of generations in a row. It was eventually handed to me as both a sign of the original owner's trust in me, and also as a promise to that person that I would one day be asked to fulfill. I had been asked to pass it on to my son's firstborn on his eleventh birthday, as a means to prepare him for a coming trial."

The old man then grinned a little, "But that's not when I actually gave it to you, now is it? And if you think on it for a little bit, you might even realize the significance of _why_ I gave it to you then. That is, if you even still remember."

It was quite hard to forget, rather, since it had been one of the rarer occasions on which his grandfather had shown his gentler, more civil side after their falling-out with each other. It was true that his grandfather had actually promised to give him something for his eleventh birthday (which was on July the twenty-first, to be more exact). That had been quite the surprise, back then. But then he had went and surprised Reios again when he was actually given the gift a little over three months early, in April.

Reios had never really put any serious thought into any of it, and why would he have? It had just been an old and senile man trying to get an unimportant – and more importantly, unwanted – event over with all the sooner. But with his grandfather now insisting that he think back on it, something instead decided to just click into place, and so he remembered. Three months prior to his eleventh birthday, on the very same April that he had received his pendant, was when Sakura had supposedly received her own key.

Sakura had once said that Clow Reed's favorite saying was 'there is no coincidence in this world'. Now he understood why.

"The better part of a night," Reios muttered quietly.

It was his grandfather's turn to frown in confusion, "Come again?"

Reios took up his grandfather's attention with a side glance, "I mean, it took me the better part of a night to figure it all out. The pendant's contracting, the card spells, and whatnot. Wait, let me guess. You're going to say that I took too long?"

The old man could not help himself, and let off into a rolling fit of laughter almost immediately. It was an act that somehow found itself infectious enough to force even Reios into a grin and eventual chuckle. His grandfather easily caught sight of that grin, which was enough to send him off into a second round of laughter before falling back onto his raised pillow with a satisfied smile.

He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words there only came a violent fit of coughing to replace the laughter. Reios immediately leaned in, "Hey, hey, take it easy. What's wrong?"

The coughing stopped for as abruptly as it had begun, allowing him to look back at his grandson, "I may be a powerful, all-knowing sorcerer, but I'm still an _old_ and powerful, all-knowing sorcerer. My power is all that is keeping me going right now, but even those with power will one day have to conform to the laws of nature. I'm sure you've learned this by now."

To the surprise of them both, Reios dropped his gaze away in dismay. His grandfather stared at him closely, "My my, you have changed. Considerably, at that, and I'm not talking about the eyes either. What do you care about my condition, anyway? I thought that you had had it with me? Disavowed the family name and all that?"

"Come on, I..." Reios retorted, but he faltered. He _did_ care, strangely enough. But why?

"Well, no matter," the grandfather muttered after failing to get a reply, waving it off casually with one hand, "You're just here, and that's all I really care about right now. Tell me... how long do you plan on staying?"

The kindly expression and verbal reply that eventually came in response from Reios were both as equally sincere as his feelings were. He cared because names meant nothing, as they were only a formality. Words exchanged in the past meant nothing, for that was in the past. In the long run, they were still family. Not gods, nor magic, nor even family itself, could ever change that fact.

Devotion to family superseded all else. Such was Reios's one truth, and he made a mental note to later thank Tomoyo for reminding him of that.

"I'll stay here for as long as it takes."

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	89. Curiosity

_10-2a: Curiosity_

A turn of the page presented Sakura with yet another five questions, all of which were mathematical in nature. They were finally the last five that she needed to conquer before she would be done with her homework for the night, a fact that she was wholly grateful for, and she fully intended to forge ahead until they were done. She had even managed to answer most of the previous page's queries on her own, too, with no outside help. No small feat there, considering the difficulties of the assignment that her class had been given. She was even beginning to enjoy herself a little bit.

That said, the next question that she started on immediately seemed impossible for her to answer. She slowly read through the paragraph twice, worked the equations in her head carefully, then even more carefully onto paper, yet none of it wanted to come together regardless of the effort that she put into making it happen. It might as well have been gibberish. Seeking to avoid the inevitable frustration of failure, she pulled back and looked to the ceiling of her room in an attempt to clear her head. A simple momentary distraction from the numerical madness would fix everything, so she started scanning about the room to provide herself just that.

With her magical senses, she could "see" Tomoyo sitting on the bed behind her, reading an absurdly oversized book in relation to their language class assignments. It came as no surprise to her that Tomoyo would have chosen such a lengthy (and most likely difficult) piece of literature to conduct her book report, as the girl was practically a literary genius. Sakura herself, by a wide contrast, found it difficult enough to handle a book of half that size in the same amount of time that Tomoyo would have used to read through the thicker one, and had wisely chosen a novel with considerably less "meat" to it.

With her physical senses, Sakura turned her peripheral vision over to Syaoran, sitting as he was on the floor in front of her old collection of plush toys, and watched idly as he worked casually on the exact same math problems as her own. He was somehow managing to handle his notebook in his left hand, while simultaneously referencing the textbook that was balancing itself on the point of his right knee. He was even on the same page as her, as well, except that he was already on the last question of the assignment and was probably half-way to solving it at that. She found it slightly disappointing that he was still so far ahead of her, and he was almost done his work on top of it. However, the very fact that she had managed to almost keep up with him was an accomplishment in and of itself, and it was something that she was considerably proud of.

"Need help with a question?"

Too caught up within her revelry of pride, Sakura failed to notice that she had turned to stare at his textbook directly. And, to her embarrassment, Syaoran had caught her looking.

She snapped her vision back to her own book in an attempt to hide her blushing features, "No, I'm fine! Just clearing my head a bit."

He beamed a smile at her, a gentle expression that he had not-so-recently developed just for her. It was that special feature of him that only she would ever get to see. Sadly for her, however, she was already attempting to engross herself back into her schoolwork, and had missed being able to see it altogether. She still understood well enough why his gaze had lingered upon her, though, and this caused her to blush all the more fiercely for it. It was enough to force Tomoyo into stifling a small giggle as she looked up from her oversized book to watch the brief exchange.

Sakura reset her mind back to her homework and attempted to reread the question for what felt like the fifth time, but regardless of her continued efforts she could now only hear the wandering thoughts of her head. Her mind had taken to its momentary relaxation, and before long she found herself unable to concentrate upon even a single word within her textbook. Instead, she began to idly dwell upon everything that had happened over the last few weeks, as she was even now still attempting to sort through everything that they had been through. Unconscious of her own actions, her eyes turned their way back towards the ceiling, and she released an audible sigh as her head flopped over backwards limply.

Looking up from her book to investigate the noise, Tomoyo found Sakura to be staring off into space, notably distracted. She recognized that part of her love almost immediately.

"You're thinking about them again," she said matter-of-factly, "Eriol and Reios that is."

Sakura's view titled further back to find Tomoyo sitting upside down and looking at her from the bottom of an upside down bed, though she quickly whipped her head back up and spun her desk chair about to correct the view.

"Yeah," she admitted, "I know it's only been a couple of weeks, but I already wonder how they're doing now that they're back to their old lives. It's just kind of hard to believe that they're not coming back. I keep expecting them to pop up out of the corner of my eye, studying just like we are."

"Neither of them actually said that they wouldn't be coming back," Syaoran inferred, "Eriol, in particular, said that he'd be back for the recital, right?"

"I know, but..." she started, but she trailed off uncertainly.

."But...?" Tomoyo repeated, insisting on an answer. It was either that or allow the always-cheerful Sakura to be in a depressing slump for the rest of the day, and she could not allow that.

Sakura's feet shuffled against the floor to turn her chair, bringing her gaze towards her room's window and the clear late-afternoon skies that laid beyond, "Well, Eriol told us that he was going to be staying in England for good now, even though he might come to visit us from time to time. We know where he lives, and we can keep in touch with him, so it's not so bad there. But Reios didn't even know where he would end up when he got home, so who knows when we'll be able to hear from him. And that's besides the fact that he doesn't even know if he'll be able to come back to visit us, let alone come back at all."

Tomoyo flashed her a smile of reassurance, "Well, that's easy enough. He will probably want to write to us eventually, and he knows my mailing address. If nothing else, we will just have to be patient. And even if he doesn't write to us, I can find out where he's living once he's settled into wherever he ends up."

"You can do that?" Syaoran asked her, an eyebrow raising up with worried intrigue. The only reply that he got back from her was a mysteriously confident smile.

"Well, that's good," Sakura told them, visibly relieved at the news. She then stood up to pace over to the window that she had been looking through, and turned it open to allow a slight breeze into the room.

She held herself there for a moment, allowing her thoughts to sort themselves, "It's not like we'll never hear from them again, right?"

At first it was nothing unusual, but eventually the silence to her question gave her cause for concern. Looking to her left towards her bed to gauge Tomoyo's reaction, she instead found the other girl staring strangely at a point in the room behind her. Sakura spun about away from the window to find Syaoran also staring at that point, which she then realized was her desk. A few moments more and she noticed that there was a glowing light coming from within the top drawer of that desk. The one that held all of her writing tools and extra school supplies.

But, more importantly, it was the same drawer that also held her Sakura Cards and the magic book.


	90. The Letter

_10-2b: The Letter_

At first it was nothing unusual, but eventually the silence to her question gave her cause for concern. Looking to her left towards her bed to gauge Tomoyo's reaction, she instead found the other girl staring strangely at a point in the room behind her. Sakura spun about away from the window to find Syaoran also staring at that point, which she then realized was her desk. A few moments more and she noticed that there was a glowing light coming from within the top drawer of that desk. The one that held all of her writing tools and extra school supplies.

But, more importantly, it was the same drawer that also held her Sakura Cards and the magic book.

She took extremely cautious steps to close the distance between the window behind her and her glowing desk, and stopped directly in front of the light show that was coming from it. Carefully raising her arm up, her hand found the knob to the drawer and latched onto it securely, though she had to turn a nervous glance to both Syaoran and Tomoyo before she could work up the nerve to actually pull it open. Once exposed to open air, the glowing stopped almost immediately, but not before Sakura caught sight of what had been the culprit.

To her express relief, it had nothing to do with her book or her cards at all. The thought of having to reincarnate them all over again, which was what had transpired the last time her drawer had taken to glowing, was just a little more than slightly troubling. She had absolutely no doubt, though, that Tomoyo would have derived much pleasure for herself out of such an outcome. No – the culprit, rather, was a small round piece of metal, about the same size and color as a simple ten yen coin. It held no markings on it whatsoever to identify its actual value, however.

How such a strange object could have hidden itself within that drawer completely baffled her. At the very least, she knew that she was not into the habit of collecting unmarked coins, but knowing this did little to resolve the question of how it had arrived there in the first place. It looked harmless enough, and despite the slight fluctuations of power that she could feel coming from it, she could not sense anything wrong or dangerous with it. Regardless, she erred on the side of caution when she reached in to pick it up, moving slowly and keeping a light touch on it as her fingers contacted the metallic object.

Just as the glow that had attracted them had stopped as the drawer had been opened, so too did the emanations of magic stop from the coin as it left the confines of that same drawer. Sakura's left hand idly moved to close the drawer while the rest of her turned about to examine the coin in a better light, incidentally allowing both Tomoyo and Syaoran a better view of the troublemaker. The both of them were already on their feet to try and better analyze the situation.

"A coin?" Tomoyo asked quietly.

Sakura shook her head slowly, "I don't know. It doesn't have any markings on it."

"What's going on!?" Kero questioned sharply, shooting his way past the cracked-open door in a veritable panic, "I sensed something from in here just now!"

"I don't know," Sakura repeated, "My desk drawer just started glowing, and I found this when I opened it to investigate."

Sakura held up the coin for her guardian to examine, only to have it hover its way out of her hand just before she could make to further comment about it. Kero followed it closely as it moved about, floating higher up into the air and flying level with the coin to better examine it for himself. He peered at it intensely, using both his eyes and inner senses in an attempt to detect something that he could tell was lying just beyond the surface. Something that he felt he recognized, though it was so well hidden that it might as well have been completely foreign to him.

He closed the gap to the point that he could reach out and touch it, and lifted a paw to make contact with the object. His paw found its mark, and at first he felt no resistance to his presence as he rested the end of his arm up against it. But then he noted that was there no give to his touch, either. The coin was completely immobile in its current spot. However, he could also feel no residual traces of energy or any kind of detectable presence within the coin that would give it such qualities, or anything for that matter that would otherwise tell him of what its purpose was.

Even so, there was still that slight recognition of its origin that even now continued to nag at him, poking and prodding at the back of his thoughts. Having contacted the coin, his powers should have been able to easily penetrate its barriers, and pinpoint its origins. That he could not penetrate the coin's magic only brought rise to more suspicions.

Logical deduction forced his slight recognition to flare up fully, and then it all made sense. He snapped his wings down to pull away from the coin, then uttered quietly, "It's him again."

"Who?" Sakura asked insistently.

Again they were interrupted by the coin that they were so intent on investigating, with all four of them jumping back startled as it flashed a weak light into the room. Twice again it flashed, each burst more intensive than the last, until at last a fourth flash of light blinded them all completely. By the time that they had regained their ability to see, the coin that they had surrounded was no more. What instead occupied the room along with them was now a floating envelope hovering in the same spot where the coin had been just moments before. They all had to lean in closer to Tomoyo's position to see, but from her point of view it had no return address written to it. It was, however, sealed by a large red circle of wax that had some kind of symbol pressed into it. They soon realized that it was the kanji for the word "moon".

"A letter?" Syaoran asked, even as curiosity overtook his better judgement to make him move in for a closer look. Such a loss of better judgement nearly awarded him a potentially painful paper-cut as the letter shot itself away from him and more towards Tomoyo, almost as though it were offering itself to her.

"For me?" she asked confusedly, glancing back and forth between all those present for any ideas. As if in reply, the letter hopped in midair twice, moving even closer to her than before and surprising her at the sudden movement. Even though the people around her failed to provide her with any reason as to why a glowing coin would suddenly turn into a letter that was supposedly meant for her, it did not stop her from plucking the letter before her out of the air and breaking the wax seal on the flap.

Only a single page was located within, and it was written in a style of handwriting that she instantly recognized. Curiosity finally took its hold upon her, as well, as she read through the page's contents:

_

* * *

Good morning. How are you today? Though I guess that "morning" is not really correct, since it is now almost early evening in Japan, yes? I would imagine that you are busy with finishing up your homework, as such, so I will attempt to keep this short. I myself have just arrived at school, over here, so I do not have long until the start of morning classes anyway. To this end, I hope you will forgive me if I cut out any more traditional pleasantries and get straight to the point of this letter._

_ The combining of souls, or the Rite of Joining as it had once been described, is a delicate process that can forever alter the minds of all those involved. It can be, and has long been, used by sorcerers and magicians of all types and origins as a method to pass on one's knowledge or desires, or even to transfer one's strengths and weaknesses to another. It can also be used as a path to an even greater power, or even when there is a certain level of intimacy involved. Manipulating the spirit is the basis for _all_ types of magic, after all._

_ The human spirit, the spark of life that exists within all of us, is as mysterious as life itself. However, the mystery of life is something that you, of all people, should know of. The human spirit is an essence that, even after a Joining, will remain unique to each of us. It is immune to both impurity and destruction, except for in the most extreme of circumstances. It should come as no surprise to you, then, that yours, as well as he who was with you at that time, is such a circumstance._

_ Whether you will one day realize this part of yourself or not, I cannot tell even now as I am writing this. I fear that my ability of foresight will continue to remain clouded for a little while longer, though it is slowly beginning to recover itself. I should hope, however, that you would regardless inform me if and when you one day learn of yourself. I would be more than happy to offer up any advice that you may require._

_ In closing, I ask that you take care of Sakura and the cards that my former self worked so hard to create. I ask that you to do this in my stead, as I can no longer be there with you all. My place is here in England. But your powers, together, will one day grow to rival that of even the worlds beyond our own. Of this I am sure, foresight or no. By this, I will rest assured that these creations, my former self's children that we all worked so hard together to protect, will always be safe. _

_ And there goes the school bell for first classes, so I must be off before I am late. Oh, but one more thing. Please ask Sakura to forgive me for rummaging around in her desk, but it had been the closest place available at the time to hide the coin-like spell marker that she found. And if you're wondering, I put it there while I was visiting her the night before the Metal spirit incident. She can rest assured that she is not into absentmindedly collecting random trinkets._

_Well then, until we can meet again,_

_Eriol Hiiragizawa  


* * *

_

The confusion on Tomoyo's face as she read each word, and then reread each sentence to confirm what she had seen, was more than evident to the others. Her eyebrows were finally as close to her eyes as they could be as she attempted to decipher the words for a third time, though without any more luck than before. Seeing that she was unable to comprehend the message supposedly meant for her, Kero immediately took advantage of his size and abilities of flight to afford himself a place on Tomoyo's shoulder. From there he read for himself what had confounded her so badly, and from this he found himself just as equally confounded.

"Well of course it had to be him. But what does it all mean?" was the guardian's eventual utterance, "It sounds like he wrote this only a few minutes ago, but how could he possibly have known to have that 'coin' ready for this if he couldn't see into the future? It doesn't make any sense!"

"Him, who?" Sakura asked, growing slightly vexed that Kero was once again ignoring her, unintentionally or otherwise. She instead turned her query over to Tomoyo, "Who is it from?"

The mask of confusion never left Tomoyo's face even as she looked up from the letter to make her reply, "It's from Eriol. I'm not really sure I understand it either; he was being very cryptic. He said that–."

Again they were interrupted, though this time it was by nothing from within the room that they occupied. It had been a powerful wave of spiritual energy. Nothing overtly threatening, but it had rather carried with it a feeling of "displacement". It was as if something had suddenly forced its way into appearing wherever the spread of magic had originated. As their senses calmed enough to begin scanning out into the city, they could begin to tell that this power they had all felt was coming from somewhere a small distance away. It had come from somewhere within the region of the Tomoeda neighborhood, so they knew that the origin point was close by.

It had been a powerful wave. Massive, even. Such an analysis signified that whomever had put off that much energy had surely traveled a great distance in order to arrive at their destination. That they had also not bothered to take any steps to hide such an arrival could only suggest that they _wanted_ to be found.

"Anyone else feel that?" Kero asked quietly, instantly suspicious of its source.

"How couldn't we?" Syaoran muttered to him.

"That energy... it was huge..." Sakura followed up.

"What was that?"

That final question automatically snapped every single one of them out of their concern for that mysterious power's origin and strength, and instead had them focusing their attention away from the world and back into their little room for a very good reason.

It had been Tomoyo who had voiced that last question.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=

The portal snapped shut without a trace, leaving him standing alone on the street where a row of cherry trees was located. That he had returned to the correct place was obvious enough, since the general landscape was all too familiar to him, but he was unable to recognize any specific markers that would help lead him to his destination. As effectively as he had found his way back, it meant nothing now that he was at a complete loss as to which way to go. Typical.

That would not be able to stop him, however. He could still sense the presence that he was after, even as inactive as it currently was. The traces of their powers were still nearby, and so would be easy enough to locate. If anything, the sheer volume of magic that he had put off in arriving here would likely draw _them _to _him_, as well, and that would make the search so much easier_._ The only problem left for him now was finding the right street to– wait. Their?

He checked more closely against his findings, and noted that there were four separate elements to the presence that he was after. One of those elements was likely the one that he sought, though sensing two or three in total would have been completely understandable. But a fourth? That should not have been possible, but its apparent truth forced speculation to become his only recourse for any possible explanation. The implications of it all made him very much concerned as to the outcome of his planned reunion. Not that that would be able to stop him, either, but still...

Speculation and doubt were not of any use in navigating side-streets in the middle of unknown suburbs, however. Picking a random turn-off into a nearby alley, he started making his way closer towards _their_ presence.

=*= *-* =*= *-* =*=


	91. Soul Potential

_10-3a: Soul Potential_

"A powerful energy. It's almost like it... hmm?" Sakura began, then stopped cold when she actually realized the true intended meaning of Tomoyo's question. She was left standing there stunned for several moments before she could work up a proper response. Forcing herself out of her her stupefied state, she looked to Tomoyo with wide-eyed distress.

"Wait, you... you felt that!?" she cried out in shock.

"I-I don't... I just..." Tomoyo stammered, almost scared to think of what had just happened, "I d-don't know _what_ I just felt. It was... it was..."

"I thought only people with magic could sense a presence like that?" Sakura asked to her guardian. Her anxiety over Tomoyo was now taking full precedence against anything else.

Syaoran replied in his stead, "You're right. Only those with magic can."

"And last I checked," Kero added in, "Tomoyo _didn't_ have any magic. But now..."

Kero had read the letter for himself and had understood Eriol's claims of the joining of souls, but to actually believe in what they were being told as reality was asking one to instead believe in fantasy. But this did not disregard the fact that Tomoyo had somehow sensed the presence that had made itself very well known to the rest of them. She was not the type of person who would fake such a detail, nor was even she faking it at all. He could tell that she actually _had _felt the same thing as everyone else, and he fully intended to find out exactly how she had done it. Paw again outstretched, Kero this time floated his way towards Tomoyo, seeking to link his power into her mind and scan through her life essence for whatever spark it was that Eriol had referred to.

The two made contact with each other, paw to forehead, and a low groan escaped from Kero to signal the release of his power into the core of her being. To Tomoyo, it was an explosion of an unexplainable and unidentifiable electrical current coursing all throughout her body, almost creating a numbing sensation as Kero's power temporarily took over total control of her senses. It was all she could do just to remain standing as the room around her began to spin wildly.

For a brief second, she recalled a memory of something like this being of a far stranger sensation. A feeling of great pain that had rather held more of a greater meaning than that of the suffering it had inflicted. Then she realized that she had never actually endured anything like this before, and that it was a memory not of her own making. It was a memory that had been born of the few thoughts that she had saved from the darkness of before. A memory that was not her own, but instead was one that belonged to a certain friend.

Just as she was on the verge of fighting to merely remain in a conscious state, the connection between her and the little guardian was broken, rushing her back to the conscious world at a sickening pace. She had to lean against Sakura's desk chair with one arm just to remain upright, as she shook her head to free herself of the vertigo that was still threatening to overwhelm her. She fought against herself to both get over the unsettling sensation of numbness, and as well as to hammer down the stolen memories that had crept their way to the forefront.

"Well, I suppose it makes sense, now," Kero muttered to himself, floating away to the middle of the room instead of revealing his findings.

"What does?" Sakura asked forcefully, almost ready to fly into a panic, "Is she all right!?"

"Oh, she's fine. Quite fine, in fact," he replied calmly, turning about in place to face his mistress, "I could sense nothing wrong with her, physically. She's in perfect health. Her spiritual essence, however, has been altered. Artificially enhanced, one might say."

"Altered?" Tomoyo repeated curiously. She was calm enough in her own right, now that she had been assured of her personal safety, but she was still concerned about whatever it was that had now changed within her.

Kero nodded to her affirmatively, "Yes, altered. If Eriol's letter is right, about all of this spiritual joining and what not, then I believe that your new friend may have something to do with it. What's his name... that Reios guy. He told us of what he could about his time spent within a reality of nothingness, after his Life card had banished him there much like how that old geezer had sent you. He told us of how he had then linked your two souls together, and had channeled most of his own energy into your individual self to avoid any further degradation of your own spiritual essence. I guess it could be likened to a blood transfusion for the soul.

"It's my guess that whatever he did to that end may also have triggered a latent effect within you. It opened up a conduit to the spiritual energy that lives within all humans. It usually lies dormant and asleep, but in you I can sense that it is slowly beginning to awaken. It would have required an impossibly _massive_ amount of magical energy to pull off something like that, but I could detect trace elements of that Reios fellow's Light-based magic within you, so I can see no other method towards explaining your 'spiritual awakening'."

"May I see that letter?" Syaoran asked, and took the offered leaf of paper to read it over for himself. Sakura quickly took the opportunity to step in beside him, and together they read over Eriol's cryptic wordings to Tomoyo, though they grew none the wiser for having read it. Rather, all it served to do was force Syaoran into a state of extreme agitation.

"So he _knew_ that this was all going to happen, after all!" he cried out, flying into a veritable rage, "I should have known better than to trust that– ...huh?"

His tantrum was held short as a change overcame the letter in his hands. At first it had not seemed any different from before, making him wonder if he was imagining things, but before long he spotted an inclusion to the writings that had not been there previously – and it was still being written, as words continued to appear at the bottom of the page one letter at a time. It was a post script to the body text of the letter, which both he and Sakura quickly read over with each other:

* * *

_P.S. - to both Kerberos and Syaoran:_

_ You two are often ones to take things far too suspiciously. I shall have to hope that the following explanation will give you cause enough to believe me, simply due to the fact that I am taking the time to write this while in the middle of my Biology Sciences class._

_ I did tell you once already that I had no say in the handling of the memories of my past life, nor was I able to combat the combined effects of the elemental spirits against my magic of foresight. So again, no, I did not know what the future might bring for us. This does not, however, have anything to do with my hiding in Sakura's desk what I would imagine _did_ look like a suspicious object. I had, in truth, placed it there in simple anticipation of my swift departure after all had settled, so that I might write a final farewell to you as I am doing now. I was merely being hopeful of our eventual victory, nothing more. I am allowed to hope, am I not?_

_ But the future is as uncertain as the memories of my previous life are, and this is most especially true for those of us who can actually see the future's myriad potentials. Even before both Clow and the spirits had begun interfering with me, I had not fully known of what the final outcome of our struggles would be. We could have very well failed and lost all of our lives, and yet I had chosen to hide that enchanted coin in that drawer anyway. As you can see, it was merely wishful thinking on my part._

_ Yet we did not fail, and so this last trick of mine has played out for the better. I have been able to talk to you all one more time, even if you cannot reply back to me right away. Which is good, because my teacher almost caught me writing this just now. I would hate to have to explain the technique of magic-based long distance communication to a _scientist_, of all people. Anyway, I will look forward to hearing back from you all soon._

_ And to summarize for you two doubt-filled children, trust in my magic. I have a great deal more experience in it than the two of you combined twice over, which should be plenty enough of a reason for you. _

_Listen to your elders for once?_

* * *

Syaoran dropped his paper-wielding arm in disbelief, "What kind of explanation is that!? He _expects_ us to trust him, after all of this? He must be joking!"

"Of course we should trust him!" Sakura admonished him quickly, and she also tossed an icy glance at Kero for good measure, "Eriol _is_ our friend, and he's proven that more than once already!."

Syaoran immediately held up his hands in surrender, "Alright, alright, we trust him. But then, if he _is_ right..."

He nervously made a half-side glance at Tomoyo before completing his question, "...does this mean that Tomoyo can use magic now, just like the rest of us?"

All attention in the room was then returned to Tomoyo and her now-evident magical ability. Under the multiple stares of scrutiny, she felt compelled to ask, "What... what could I ever hope to do?"

Kero circled about them sharply, and came up from behind them to land himself on Sakura's shoulder, "Well, there's no need to rush any of it. The ability to use magic won't be easy to manipulate for a newcomer, especially for someone that was not naturally born with a talent for it to begin with. It will take all of time, patience, and confidence in order to gain the skill required to manipulate it with ease. It will probably take months just to nurture your new-found powers into something that will have a practical use for you. Even Sakura, the chosen heir to Clow Reed's magic, needed time to grow into and get used to the cards. It took her a whole three months just to be able to trust her inner senses and the powers that they were linked to. With practice, I'm sure that you could become quite skilled in your own right."

"What kind of skill could _I_ possibly learn?" Tomoyo asked, still partially unsure of whether or not to believe in what she was hearing.

Syaoran decided to take a turn at playing teacher, "Magic can come in all kinds of forms. Anywhere from simplistic elemental manipulation, like my family's magic, and all the way to the designing of complex spell-forms, like the cards. As long as the teacher is skilled in the field you are studying, you could probably learn to do anything. Not only that, but you've also been watching all of us for a very long time, so you probably have a decent grasp already of how things are supposed to work. If you really wanted to, for example, you could even ask Sakura or Eriol for advice on how to make your own cards."

"My own cards..." Tomoyo whispered to herself, trying to come up with all of the possibilities.

"The 'Tomoyo Cards', huh? It has a nice ring to it!" Sakura commented cheerfully. The eagerness in her voice to see what Tomoyo could come up with was easily detectable. Of course, such support for Tomoyo's curiosities only set off a further rampage of thoughts inside of the girl's head. It eventually drew out that familiar, dreamy look in her eyes, a look that Sakura immediately took notice of. She was very familiar with that expression, since such a look could only mean that Tomoyo had once again come up with some grandiose idea that would soon take the form of a new costume design or choreographed scene. But it also caused a heavy and noticeable concern for Sakura, because that specific look that was coming from Tomoyo was typically reserved for ideas concerning Sakura herself, and _only_ Sakura herself.

Tomoyo was dreamily looking off into space as she spoke, "Then, if I could learn to make my own cards... if I could become even remotely as powerful as Sakura..."

Sakura knew what was coming...

"We could become a crime-fighting team!"

"H-hoe?" was all she could get out of her mouth for having been so totally blindsided. She had no idea that Tomoyo could have ever suggested that.

"We... uh, what?" Syaoran asked flatly, with his eyebrow raised in astonishment that such words had actually come away from her.

Tomoyo completely ignored their dumbstruck faces as she continued, "With my family's finances, Sakura's skills as a Cardcaptor, and Syaoran's martial arts... if I learn enough about magic from everyone, we could work together to bring peace to the entire city! Maybe even the world! Oh, and just think of all the new costume ideas I could come up with! Why, I could probably even design–."

A second wave of magic washed over them swiftly, making its presence known to them and rudely interrupting Tomoyo's fantasies. They immediately noted that this one was far less imposing than the one that they had felt from before. It was almost as if this one was specifically calling out to them, though it was by the strange method of what felt like someone shining a flashlight into their eyes. But it was also familiar to them, in a sense, like they had felt the origin of its magic before. Or at least, it was that way for everyone except Tomoyo, who had been unable to sense such things up until now. By all of this, however, they realized that they had completely set aside any awareness of the first, massively powerful wave of energy that had initially distracted them. How they could have possibly managed to ignore it so blatantly, regardless of Tomoyo's sudden revelations, was something that they found hard to believe.

"Did you feel that one, too?" Sakura asked of Tomoyo. The dark-haired girl's sharp nod in admittance did little to change their next objective, "We should go find out what it is. Come on."

Kero was already a good ways ahead of his mistress in the thinking department, and was making to pull the door to her room wide open in expectation of the rush of bodies that would soon come flying through it. That onrush came almost immediately afterwards as he nearly found himself being slammed into the wall by the very door that he was trying to open.

As he followed those bodies out and into the hall, he muttered to himself, "I just hope it's not that old–."

"Don't even try to think that, Kero!" Sakura warned the guardian as she turned the corner to head down the stairs, stopping at the top just to cut him off mid-sentence, "We defeated him, plain and simple. Besides, this presence doesn't feel the same. It's not empty or corrupted, this time."

Flying down the stairs two steps at a time, Sakura had to grab onto the banister at the bottom of the stairs with a forceful hand to stop herself from crashing into the wall. Then, without even thinking of slowing down, she used her momentum to swing herself into a U-turn to bring herself about and towards the door, and in the process nearly knocked over her father with a basket-load of laundry. The other two quickly mimicked her to keep up, though by that point Mr. Kinomoto had already backed away to a safe distance to watch them all dash down the stairs and through the hallway as though the house were on fire. They had barely even taken enough time to switch out their footwear before shooting through the front door. Believing that there was some form of emergency waiting for them outside, he placed the basket down and made a rush to that door for himself.

By the time that her father had even made it through the door, Sakura had already lead her entourage halfway down the residential street and around a corner onto the primary road. She was throwing her senses every which way to try and pinpoint the source of both the earlier massive energy spike, as well as the smaller presence they had more recently felt. Yet between herself, Syaoran, and even Tomoyo, they had very little success in locating any residual traces of that presence. It was as if whomever or whatever had announced themselves had just as quickly gone back into hiding.

"It's no good! I can't sense anything now!" Sakura cried out, trotting to a stop against the soft downward slope of the street they were on. Syaoran came up behind her in such a rush that he shot clean past her as he attempted to come to a stop for himself, with a panicked Sakura's athletic prowess in running having outperformed even his supposed equivalent ability. Tomoyo, on the other hand, was just now managing to catch up to her two athletic companions. It was all she could do after that just to recover her breath.

Syaoran was also decently winded from such a long sprint, and had to gulp down an extra breath in order to speak, "Maybe we waited too long to try and find it?"

"It grew impatient, then? But why would it call to us again if it couldn't afford to wait for us?" Sakura asked, attempting to reason out the failure of their search.

A thin fluttering of wings announced Kero's arrival from above, "The skies are no good, either! The tree cover is too thick in this part of the neighborhood. I can't see anything from up there."

Sakura looked about idly, searching for any possible remedies to their situation, "There has got to be something we can do. Maybe one of the cards can... Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo's gaze had long since left Sakura, and now those eyes were staring into the distance behind them, looking to a point back up the road that they had just come through. Sakura took a quick register of Tomoyo's features, that those amethyst eyes were wide and unfocused, unheeding of all else around her. Whatever it was that had caught her attention, it was driving a powerful emotion through her to freeze her up like that.

"Tomoyo?" Sakura asked again. She turned about at the same time to sight the road behind them where Tomoyo was staring off at. There was nothing there.

"What is it? Can you feel it's presence?" Syaoran questioned.

"It's not... it's not a presence, I think. I don't know..." Tomoyo replied slowly. She was not exactly sure about what she was even explaining, "It's more like... a familiarity. Like I know what... no. No, I do know who this is!"


	92. Homecoming

_10-4b: Homecoming_

"Tomoyo?" Sakura asked again. She turned about at the same time to sight the road behind them where Tomoyo was staring off at. There was nothing there.

"What is it? Can you feel it's presence?" Syaoran questioned.

"It's not... it's not a presence, I think. I don't know, it's like..." Tomoyo replied haltingly. She was not exactly sure about what she was even explaining, "It's more like... a familiarity. Like I know what... no. No, I do know who this is!"

"What? Who is it?" Sakura asked insistently. Further absence of any reply prompted her to turn back to Tomoyo and ask again, only to have her question interrupted by the widening grin upon her love's face. Yet those dark-colored eyes were _still_ aimed to that same point up the street behind them. She turned again to try and determine what had caught Tomoyo's attention so securely, and found her own face widening into a bright grin at his sudden appearance, standing there at the crossroads to an alleyway as though he had always been there to begin with. He had not even noticed them yet, but that was about to change.

"Reios!" Sakura cried out, catching his attention just as he was turning to head back into the alleyway he had emerged from. He stood there as though stunned by their sudden presence, and took a moment to actually register that they were standing there. By the time that his mind had actually taken notice that they were truly there, instead of in Sakura's home where he had expected them, they were all beside him.

"When did you get back?" Sakura asked anxiously, taking note as she came up in front of him that he was holding a pair of cards in his right hand.

He scratched at his head with that hand, "Uh, ten minutes ago, maybe? I kind of lost track of time wandering around all of these streets and alleys."

"You haven't been gone for very long. It's only been about a week." Tomoyo noted, "Why are you back so soon? Unless..."

He could easily sense her intended meaning, and smiled gently to soften the building tension, "He was old, and he was dying. He said so himself, and passed on knowing that all he had done was right and with good intention. There were no regrets, so don't feel sad. I'm not, and I know for sure that he isn't."

"When...?" was all she could ask.

"Last night."

A respective silence fell over them, given in due reverence to the loss of a loved one. As the moment passed, and it once again felt right to speak openly, Sakura asked, "But then, _how _did you get back so soon?"

He grinned roguishly, and held up the two cards in his one hand, "This guy, of course. Come on, surely you felt Warp's magic emanations from my arrival? I used it from practically the other side of the world. The resultant energy output should have been massive! I'll probably need a three-day long nap, now, because of it."

"Yeah, we sure felt it, all right," Syaoran remarked, then raised an eyebrow, "But what's with the other one?"

Reios double checked the contents of his hand, and suddenly remembered that he was still holding onto two cards, "Oh, this one? It's the Light. It's how I tried to find you, by 'pinging' a visually undetectable wave of light against anything magic-based. These street addresses are all a bunch of gibberish to me, so I needed _something_ to find my way around."

He activated it again as an example of his meaning, sending its power flying out as it had before with merely a beseeching thought. What he received back only verified a previous theory, as he took in not just three reflections of light, those coming from Syaoran, Sakura, and Kero, but a fourth reflection as well. His actions were also easily noticed by the four surrounding him, with their eyes instantly catching themselves upon the Light card at the familiar sense of magic washing over them. That Tomoyo's eyes had also instantly flown that way only solidified his assumptions.

"And so I instead find myself responsible for burdening you with a power that you never asked for," he muttered, drawing their attention back to him, and then to Tomoyo as he looked to her. With a wave of anxiety washing over him, he asked hesitantly, "...how long have you known?"

"We only found out just a few minutes ago, ourselves," Tomoyo replied, pulling her hands back behind herself respectfully, "But no, you're wrong. It's no burden at all. If anything, I should be thanking you."

"No, no, hear me out first before you get all angry with– wait, what? Thanking me?" Reios asked incredulously. This was a far cry from anything that he had predicted to hear from this person that preferred to play out of sight of the camera, and he had to replay her words in his head one more time to make sure that he had heard her correctly.

Tomoyo locked him into a meaningful stare, "Yes – thank you. Ever since the very start of Sakura's adventures, ever since we were kids, it had felt like I was only a behind-the-scenes person. I had believed that I was content to just watch Sakura and everyone play out their roles. But ever since you came along, ever since all of these new conflicts started cropping up, I had started feeling like I needed to be doing something greater. It was like there was some other way that I should have been helping out, more than just costumes and words, but I just could not figure out what it was."

She then smiled and looked away from him with an almost coy expression, "Then you made me make that dress, and even recorded me onto my own video camera. That was when it started to all fall into place, and I realized that there was more to my contributions than I was giving myself credit for. I figured out, through finally experiencing it from you first hand, that the moral support I was always trying to give to everyone was, in a way, its own kind of magic.

Tomoyo stalled for a moment to listen to her own words, then returned her gaze back to Reios to show him that she was being sincere, "And now I have this new power, a _real_ magic, and its all thanks to you. Between that and this second chance that I have been given, I feel that I can really work alongside Sakura now. With all of you, even, and not just by watching from behind a camera anymore. It might take some learning, and a lot of time, but this is something that I really want to do. So I honestly do thank you, for everything."

"Well, uh... heh, I, err..." he stuttered, trying to hide both his gushing embarrassment and blatant blushing. Such attempts were failing horribly, however, so he turned and started walking back up the street so as not to have to face them directly.

"I, uh... suppose... that's good, then... uh, right?" he finished off as everyone else started to follow along behind him.

Sakura looked back and forth between the two as a beaming Tomoyo made to move up beside him, somehow unable to help but think of the potential feelings that she had sensed between them back at the Tsukimine Shrine a little over a week ago. They were pretty similar to each other, in a way. Sure, they both came from different sides of the world, but that was honestly where the differences ended, in her opinion. And she was not considering their eye colors, either.

Reios was always saying about how his first duty was to his own, to his family. That seemed to show in how much he cared for everyone's collective well being, and Tomoyo's most especially. And now that she finally understood Tomoyo's true feelings for herself, Sakura had finally realized in addition that this was the same as how Tomoyo had treated all of them for the longest time. Like family.

There was an unbreakable bond now set between her second love and their newest friend, far greater than that of any mere friendship, and she could see it quite clearly. It was the kind of bond that extended out to each person that was currently present, and probably even reached all the way to a certain Englishman that was not present, as well. And whether or not it had something to do at all with their recent troubles, it seemed to Sakura that such a bond was now growing even stronger still between every single one of them, and between the two sibling-like people ahead of her in particular. So at least to Sakura's point of view, it was as if the two had truly become family to one another.

"But you still haven't answered me," Tomoyo remarked, drawing Sakura's attention back to their conversation, "Why did you come back so soon? You couldn't have visited your home for very long."

Reios looked to her with an humorous grin, "Well of course not, I just got back! Didn't have time to head to my apartment."

"Your apartment..?" Tomoyo repeated inquisitively, then smiled to herself at his half-joke, "No, I mean when you flew over to see your grandfather. _That _home."

"Oh, _that _home," he noted with an exaggerated tone, "Well, to be honest, there was nothing left for me to visit. There was no 'home' for me to go to, over there. My only reason for even going back at all was to see _him_ off, while the chance was available. I may or may not have told you all of this before, but when I came here to Japan, I had left _everything_ behind. My family, my friends, my home – all of it. And I made sure that they were all well aware of that. Even now, after everything has been settled between myself and the cause of my departure, I intend to keep it that way.

He then crossed his arms as he recalled something, "Actually, one of my uncles _did _make a fuss about me having to stay for the funeral, despite my best efforts at remaining undetected by said family and friends, but Grandfather and I agreed that I should just keep my distance. We all knew that it would just cause trouble. Even my uncle knew that, but whatever.

"This place is my home now," he finished, and pointed down at the ground symbolically, "I have all the family I need right here."

Syaoran huffed softly, a half-humorous grin on his own face, "Home is where the heart is, huh? A bit of a cliché, don't you think?"

Reios tilted his head back behind him to issue a retort, "So? It _is_ a good concept.".

Syaoran crossed his arms and avoided eye contact by looking straight ahead, "A good concept, but a cheesy concept."

"Well, fine then! I like cheesy. So what?" Reios threw back, which in turn incited a stifled giggle out of Sakura from their sudden bickering.

He then started walking backwards as he spun about on her, "And don't you even start, because I'm right and you know it! Or would you have preferred that I'd come back literally _singing_ of how wonderful this... place... ah, hell."

The unexpected stalling and unfamiliar English cursing had Sakura looking at him rather quizzically, "What, did you forget something?"

Reios held his tongue while his thoughts struck home, but eventually he released a rather dejected sigh as he turned to face forward again, "Yeah, the fact that we have a recital coming up in two days? I nearly skipped out on it!"

Tomoyo flashed him another cheerful smile, "You're back to stay now, right? So no harm done there, and it also means that our plans for that evening are back on schedule."

"Plans?" Reios asked.

Sakura jumped in to answer, "Oh yeah, the party! Its already been in the works for _weeks_ now. We were going to hold a get-together after the recital, but you and Eriol had left so abruptly that we weren't so sure about having it anymore. Then Eriol said that he was going to make a special trip just for the recital, and you're here now, too! That means we can go ahead and have it anyway!"

Without even realizing it, Reios found that they had already traversed an unseen path of streets and corners, and had once again found themselves at the front gate to Sakura's house, which Sakura was already skipping ahead towards to open for them. Yet again he had lost his chance to memorize the route to her house. The damned street signs in this place were just so confusing. But in light of recent developments, he knew that he would now have more than enough chances in the future to find his way, so he let the issue drop.

As Reios made his way by the still-beaming Sakura, he quipped humorously, "A party sounds good."

* * *

* * *

_END_


End file.
